Harry Potter and the Chains of the Soul
by RyianaT
Summary: Buffy and Faith find themselves trapped in a hell dimension, fighting to find a way out, alongside some surprising allies. In another place, a young boy tries to deal with the loss of his godfather and the burden of prophecy that rests upon him.
1. The End is Really the Beginning

**Harry Potter and the Chains of the Soul**

**by RyianaT**

**Disclaimer: **All things Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Twentieth Century Fox. All things Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling. This story is being written for fun and no profit is being made of it.

**Summary: **Slayers, resurrections, transdimensional travel, Druidic rituals. Just when Harry thought his life couldn't get any stranger.

**Spoilers: **Buffy: up through the ending of Chosen, then AU; Harry: up through Order of the Phoenix.

**Author's Notes: **Thanks go out in huge degrees to my beta, and good friend, Arieanna. Without her, this story would royally suck. Thanks, Arie! I highly recommend checking out her stories, especially Champion Industries, which can be found under her name here.

**The End is Really the Beginning - Prologue**

_The fighting is going on strong. The girls, once potentials, now Slayers, fight with a zeal and a passion they had been missing before. In the second she has to look around, in between uber-vamps, Buffy finds herself filled with pride at how well they are doing. Then the second is over, and it was back to swing, strike, kill. She hears Spike says something behind her, but she is too focused to understand it. She calls out to the girls, "Keep the line together! Drive them to the edge! We can't let them do...."_

_Buffy breaks off in surprise, then looks down at the sword protruding from her abdomen. She stumbles forward and collapses to the ground, face-first. God, it hurt. She knows the scythe is needed, though, so she hands it off to Faith, who heads back into battle. She lies there, trying to catch her breath, wondering if this battle will be the end for her. Not that the end is anything new mind you; she has done it twice already, after all. She doesn't long for death anymore, as she had last year, but she isn't afraid of it either. Living isn't so bad, but there was definitely something to be said for eternal peace. For a moment, just a moment, she considers just lying there and letting death come. But then the First, being just like all other evil, decides it needs that last laugh._

_"Oh no," the First looks down at Buffy's wound reflected on its body, "Oow! Mommy, this mortal wound is all...itchy. You pulled a nice trick. You came pretty close to smacking me down. What more do you want?"_

_'Taunting, my God, did everything evil just have to get that last word in?' Buffy thinks, setting her jaw. "I want you to get out of my face," she snarls at it, letting her anger and irritation with it flow through her, force her off the ground. Faith sees her up and grins, shaking her head. There wasn't much out there that could keep B down. Rona, holding the scythe, sees Buffy back up and quickly throws the weapon back to the original Slayer. Buffy catches it, and goes back to fighting, this time with a smile in place. They are gonna win, she can feel it._

_Then Spike calls her name. The amulet she had given to him is sending off streams of light, hitting all parts of the cavern, disintegrating Turok Hans wherever it touches. The hellmouth shakes, and rocks and dirt began to fall. Several of the slayers let out screams of shock at the shaking. _

_Faith quickly yells, "Everybody out now!" and the girls run pell- mell for the stairs. _

_Buffy hurries to Spike's side. Spike looks at her in amazement, "I can feel it, Buffy!"_

"_Feel what?"_

_He smils at her, "My soul. Its really there. Kinda itches a little."_

_The amulet gets brighter by the moment, sending out rays of light into the hellmouth. _

"_Go on then," Spike tells Buffy._

"_No," she shakes her head violently, "No. You've done enough. You could still..."_

"_No, you beat them back. It's for me to do the cleanup."_

_Faith stands on the stairs, waiting for Buffy, "Buffy, come on!"_

_Spike sends a grin at the blonde slayer, "Gotta move, lamb. I think its fair to say school's out for the bloody summer."_

_Buffy looks at him in disbelief. Dammit, they aren't supposed to lose anyone! "Spike!" she says._

"_I mean it! I gotta do this!" he says, holding out a hand to stop her. The light shining out from the amulet increases by ten, practically blinding them. She knows he's right. This job is for him; she chose him for it. Tears in her eyes, she reaches out for his hand. She's not leaving him here without touching him one last time. _

_As their hands touch, the amulet sends out a giant shock wave of light, catching Buffy, and Faith, who is still standing on the stairs waiting for her sister slayer, in its path. Spike, beginning to disintegrate, yells out as Buffy is yanked away from him. He tries to find her, tries to move, hands reaching up to yank off the amulet, because Buffy always comes first, but it is too late and too bright and he is too far gone. As the light explodes out one more time, this time bringing the hellmouth, and all of Sunnydale down around him, he calls out one more time, "Buffy!" But there is nothing, no answer and then he is gone._

* * *

Buffy moaned, putting a hand to her head. "Did anybody catch the mack truck that hit me?" she quipped quietly as she opened her eyes. She blinked in surprise as she looked around and sat up quicker then she should have. Her head pounded, threatening to explode, but she shook off the pain, and climbed quickly to her feet. She can see Faith, standing at the edge of a cliff a few feet away, and went to her quickly, staring off at the landscape stretched in front of her. Faith glanced her way as she walked up.

"B, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

Buffy had no response to this as she stared out across the bleak, barren plain laid out before her. It looked like a desert, with pools of lava, dark mountains and cliffs, dust flying everywhere. And on the plain below, though quite far in the distance, she saw the movement of demons, of all types and descriptions. She swallowed, eyes wide in disbelief, and flexed her hand around the comforting presence of the scythe she still held.

Faith, her face sharing the same worry and fear as Buffy's, looked over at the blonde slayer. "Where the hell are we?"

Buffy didn't take her eyes off the view before her, "I think hell is the key word. I think we've been pulled into hell."


	2. Perchance to Dream

**Harry Potter and the Chains of the Soul  
  
by RyianaT**  
  
**Disclaimer**: All things Harry Potter are owned by JK Rowling and Warner Brothers. All things Buffy the Vampire Slayer are owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Twentieth Century Fox. My muse lays claim to the plot. I own nothing and receive no profit.  
  
**Rating:** I am placing it at an "R" for violence and adult situations. However, I really think its closer to a PG-13.  
****

**Spoilers: **Buffy - through the end of Chosen; Harry - through Order of the Phoenix

**Author's Notes**: Thanks again to my beta Arie!

**Chapter One - Perchance to Dream**

'This is not going to be fun,' Remus thought to himself as he walked up the pathway to Number 4, Privet Drive. Dealing with the Dursleys never was, even when they were terrified of you. And seeing Harry, as much as Remus loved him, seem to drive home the point that he was the last of the Marauders left. Not that that would stop him from visiting Harry; not a chance. Harry was grieving every bit as much as he was; and the boy was the last link he had to the past, just as he was Harry's. But that didn't stop it from hurting. He just really wasn't in the mood to deal with the Muggles today. 'At least it's the last time for awhile,' he thought as he reached the door. 'Nothing to be done for it, really. Might as well get it over with,' he thought, reaching out and knocking on the door. A few moments went by, and then the door was opened by Petunia Dursley, whose thin face got even thinner at seeing who it was. She said nothing though, simply set her jaw and stood back to let him in. He smiled and nodded at her, determined to be polite in spite of her, "Good afternoon, Petunia. Is Harry..."

He was cut off by a sudden loud scream from upstairs. Remus jerked in surprise, recognizing the yell instantly and immediately set off in a run towards Harry's room. As he ran by the parlor he could hear Vernon Dursley begin to speak, "Now, see here, you..." Remus paid him no attention. The only thing he could think is that somehow the Death Eaters had gotten past the defenses. He could only think to himself, 'HOW!' as he put on extra speed and threw open Harry's door, wand out and ready, a spell already forming on his lips. He was surprised to find only Harry in the room, seemingly asleep on the bed. However, it was quite obviously not a peaceful sleep, as the boy yelled out again. This time, Remus was able to discern a word in the yell, "Sirius," said with such anguish and fear, that his heart broke just to hear it. Remus found himself fighting back tears as he went to Harry's bed, and grabbed him up as if he were a small child, and not a 16-year-old boy. 

"Harry," Remus said, "Harry, it's a dream, you need to wake up."

Harry jerked awake, startled, his hand going for the wand that was under his pillow. He looked around the room, wide-eyed, as if searching for something. Then his eyes settled on Lupin.

"Its Sirius, he's in this horrible place! Please, we've got to help him; we've got to get him out! They're hurting him!"

Remus swallowed the lump that had settled into his throat, "Harry," he began, then had to swallow again, as he fought back tears. "Harry, it was just a nightmare. Sirius is...he's somewhere safe now."

Harry shook his head violently. "NO! You don't understand! I saw him, they were hurting him, and he was trying to fight them but he couldn't get away. There were other people there too, but I didn't know them. We have to help him, we have to..."

"Harry!" Remus said, cutting in loudly.

Harry cut off in mid-sentence, looking at Remus in surprise and then blinked, looking as if he were only just realizing Lupin was there.

"Remus? Remus, please, I saw him. We have to, we need to..." Harry broke off, tears running down his face, as the pull of the dream began to fade and reality began to assert itself.

"I know, Harry," Remus said, adding a few tears of his own, "I have dreams about him too. But, it was just a dream. Wherever Sirius is, he's beyond us now. He's safe."

Harry took a deep breath, embarrassed by his tears now that the force of the dream had lessened some. "I...it seemed so real," he said, quietly. He and Remus both sat in silence for a moment, Remus still half holding Harry, sharing in their grief. Then, the 16-year-old portions of Harry wrested back control, and he self-consciously pulled away, running a hand through his unruly hair.

"So, uh..." Harry fumbled, feeling awkward, "what are you doing here? With Moody coming to see me yesterday, I figured I wasn't due another visit until at least Friday."

Remus nodded, "Well, that would certainly be the case. Except for the fact that Dumbledore sent me to take you to headquarters."

Harry blinked, looking at Remus in confusion. "He sent you to take me to...but, well, aren't I supposed to stay here?"

Remus raised an eyebrow at Harry, sending him a half smile. "Well, if you want to stay here, I suppose that could be arranged."

"NO! I mean, course I don't. I'm just, surprised I guess."

Remus nodded, "It was a surprise to us too. But, Dumbledore said you've been here long enough for the protection it provides to stay in effect, and he figured you might be...that you might like it better with the others."

Harry made a face. "He probably just wants me there so he can keep an eye on me. Make sure the weapon's all taken care of," he said bitterly.

Remus sighed, "I know you're angry with Albus, Harry. I am too, sometimes. One of the hardest lessons we learn in life is that the people we respect and look up to are human too, and they make mistakes. He thought he was doing the right thing and he did it because he cares about you."

Harry looked at Remus, his jaw set and his eyes hard, "His right thing cost Sirius his life. He should've told me everything and then I would've known...I wouldn't have...He should've told me."

Remus looked at Harry sadly, "Harry..."

Harry shook his head, "I don't want to talk about it, Remus. At least he's getting me out of here. I'll get my things together."

Harry moved across the room and began gathering his things. The anger radiated off of him in heavy waves and the tension sat heavy in the room. Remus wondered if there was something he should say, but he had no clue what it was. He understood that Harry needed to direct all that anger somewhere; he also knew that Harry's real problem wasn't with Albus, but with himself. Harry blamed himself for Sirus' death. Remus and Moody and the others had all tried to tell him he wasn't to blame, to talk with him about what had happened at the Ministry, but Harry was having none of it. He always changed the subject. Recently he had begun to focus on Dumbledore as the cause of Sirius' death, as if, by placing blame elsewhere, he could alleviate the pain he felt. No one was getting through to him right now, and Remus was worried. It was one of the reasons Albus had decided to let Harry come to headquarters earlier, in hopes that being back at Grimmauld Place, and in close quarters with Albus, would force him to confront the feelings festering inside of him and bring about healing. At this point, Remus wasn't sure it was going to work. Harry had Lily's temper; that was for sure, along with her ability to stay mad at something, or someone, for a good long while. However, he didn't have a better idea, so this was what they were going to do.

"Ok, I'm ready," Harry said, pulling Remus from his thoughts.

Remus nodded, "Good, then let's go, shall we. Moody and the others should be waiting outside by now."

"Are we flying again?" Harry asked, a hopeful expression coming across his face.

"No," Remus said, shaking his head with a smile, "Portkey, I'm afraid."

Harry made a face, "I don't like portkeys."

Remus nodded sympathetically, "I know. But it's the best and easiest way to get you there."

Harry sighed, "All right, whatever. Let's just go, so we can get it over with."

Remus nodded and quickly shrunk Harry's things and followed Harry down the stairs. At the bottom, speaking in hurried whispers, stood Petunia and Vernon Dursley. At the sound of tread on the stairs, they both looked up, similar expressions of distaste on their faces.

Harry gritted his teeth and strode down the stairs past them, Remus following closely. "You can all relax now, I'm leaving," he said, and with that walked straight out the door. Remus gave a nod, for politeness sake, to the two of them, and then quickly followed Harry out to where Moody, Tonks, and Bill Weasley were waiting.

"Wotcher, Harry," Tonks said, sending the boy a grin.

"Potter," this from Moody, who was busy keeping an eye on the street.

"Hey, Harry," Bill Weasley said, "Ready to get out of here?"

"You bet," Harry answered.

Moody held out what looked to be a silver tea serving tray. "Just grab hold," he said, "Bout time now."

Harry grabbed hold of the tray, waiting for the portkey to do its job, when suddenly another vision from his dream – Sirius, planting his fist in the face of some...thing, and a glimpse of blonde hair – grabbed hold of him. Harry had time to gasp before the portkey took effect and whisked him away.


	3. We Merry Few

**Harry Potter and the Chains of the Soul**

**by RyianaT**

**Disclaimer:** All things Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Twentieth Century Fox. All things Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling. This story is being written for fun and no profit is being made of it.

**Summary:** Slayers, resurrections, transdimensional travel, Druidic rituals. Just when Harry thought his life couldn't get any stranger.

**Spoilers:** Buffy: up through the ending of Chosen, then AU; Harry: up through Order of the Phoenix.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks go out in huge degrees to my beta, and good friend, Arieanna. Without her, this story would royally suck. Thanks, Arie! I highly recommend checking out her stories, especially Champion Industries, which can be found under her name here.

**Chapter Two - We Merry Few**

"Ok. That's it." Faith sat down on a nearby rock, stretching her legs out in front of her. "I don't care what comes around that freakin corner, I'm not moving again for awhile. We've been walking for forever, B, and we're not goin anywhere!"

Buffy sighed, giving in and collapsing down on the rock next to Faith. She knew she'd been driving pretty hard; had actually been pretty surprised that Faith went along with her as long as she had. After the shock of finding themselves in some kind of hell dimension, they had both decided that the direction that **didn't** have quite a few demons milling about in it was the way they should go. However, beyond walking and seeing what was around, Buffy was short any kind of plan. This wasn't the hell dimension she had been in before, and it didn't look as if there was going to be a handy dandy stairway or door that opened back to where they needed to be. Nope, there was just a whole lot of rocks and dirt, and extremely big bad guys wandering around. They'd only had one skirmish so far, with 2 orange demons that had teeth that would put Jaws to shame. Both slayers had found themselves extremely grateful that, however they'd gotten to this awful place, they'd at least held on to their weapons when they fell. Buffy still held the scythe, which seemed to hold as much power here as it had in their dimension, and a dagger that she had put in her boot. Faith was holding a long sword and a couple of stakes. At least they were armed.

Faith sighed, "I don't guess you have a clue as to what the hell we should do now? I mean, wandering around lost is great and all, but it's not doing much for my feet, y'know?"

Buffy shook her head, "I don't know. We need Giles or Willow. They're the big thinkers and "they that figure things out" in our group. We're just the muscle."

Faith nodded, "True enough. Don't self yourself too short though. The idea to make all the could-be slayers actual slayers was wicked brilliant. We stopped the First; least we have that."

Buffy rolled her eyes, "Well see, I was really hoping to enjoy stopping the First with a nice drink and a trip to the mall, not an all expense paid trip to Demon Central. Not my idea of a prime vacation spot."

"Hey, chill, B. Last time I checked, I wasn't the enemy," Faith paused, "Well, not recently anyway."

Buffy took a deep breath, grabbing a hold of her temper. Faith was right; she didn't need to be taking out her frustrations on her. This wasn't a picnic for her either.

Buffy shook her head, "The only thing I know to do is keep walking; hope that we eventually come across someone or something that can help us. At the very least, a portal out of this hellhole. And I do mean that in the most literal of senses."

Faith grimaced, but nodded, "Great. Always hated cross-country." She hauled herself back up, the short rest not much, but enough to get her going again. Suddenly, a flash to the east caught her eye. "What the...." She turned her head, trying to catch what it was she had seen. Buffy stood too, looking at Faith in confusion and then looking off in the direction that held the younger girl's attention. She blinked in surprise when the flash came again. Faith glanced back at her, "So, do we keep heading towards the big empty, or do we check out the strange flashing thing?"

Buffy pursed her lips in thought, eyes straining to see as far as she could. Then she glanced in the direction they had been going. Nothing, as far as the eye could see. Then she sighed, and began heading in the direction of the light. "Why do I have the feeling I'm going to regret this?"

Faith shrugged, sending Buffy a grin, "Experience?" Buffy couldn't help but send Faith a smile in return.

* * *

He was so thirsty. That was all he could think, that he was so incredibly thirsty. He was pretty sure he would sell his soul for a glass of water right now. Unfortunately, his soul wasn't a high commodity in this place. Oh, it brought him all sorts of unwanted attention, but no one wanted to take it off of him. Besides, it was pretty much all he had left at the moment. Locked in chains, forced into backbreaking work, regularly beaten and tortured. The creatures of this place took great pleasure in seeing how far they could push him. He had attempted escape four times, carefully planning out each one, before he realized that they set up the opportunities for him to escape, only to get off on catching him and killing his hope all over again. He had thought he had suffered before. He had thought he knew all there was to know about it; but he really had no clue. He had realized, after the last escape attempt, after the beating, and the...other things...that there was really very little hope of ever getting out of here. Wherever the hell "here" was. Despondency was settling over him.

No one realized he wasn't dead. Oh yes, the demons had derived great joy out of letting him know that. They all thought he was playing a harp and wearing a halo, he guessed. He sighed, using his shoulder to push his hair out of his face. 'Can't blame them. They don't know. They think you're safe.'

Suddenly he felt the snap of the whip across his back knocking him down with the sudden pain. He glanced up to see the bug looking one hissing at him in its strange and non-comprehensible language. It pointed an antenna towards the rock and waved the whip around again. He was up again quickly. He might not speak its language, but he got the point well enough. He bent, hefting up one of the huge rocks, filled with some silver ore, and brought it over to the strange light machine. He didn't have a clue what the machine did, only that, when you put the silver flecked ore in there, a great amount of light shot out, and the ore was reduced to a strange metal of some kind. It was magic of some kind, he knew, but he had no idea what kind or how it worked. 'Is this to be my life now?' he thought, as he moved off to get another rock. 'A lifetime filled with beatings and torture, with never enough to drink or eat, turning strange rocks into stranger metals? Is this why I've fought so hard to survive up until now?'

Not for the first time he looked at the large light machine closely, wondering what would happen if he threw himself into it. Would it kill him or just maim him, leaving him to the oh so tender mercies of the various species of demons that hung around down here? For a moment, he honestly considered giving it a try. But, he wasn't that far gone quite yet. And, a strange little voice inside him told him to hold on a little longer. There was something coming, something coming soon, if he could just hold on. He shook his head in disgust with himself. 'Hold on for what. White knight on a great steed?' There wasn't anyone out there; he was alone and he was going to be here until he died. He looked longingly again at the machine, but he just wasn't ready to try it yet. Not quite yet. Soon, though. Soon.


	4. No One Can Serve Two Masters

**Harry Potter and the Chains of the Soul**

By RyianaT

**Disclaimer**: All things Buffy belong to Joss Whedon and Twentieth Century Fox; all things Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling and Warner Brothers. No profit is being made off this story.

**Summary:** Slayers, resurrections, transdimensional travel, Druidic rituals. Just when Harry thought his life couldn't get any stranger.

**Spoilers:** Through the end of Chosen for Buffy; through OoTP for Harry.

**Author's Notes**: I'm shooting for a once a week posting at the moment. Hopefully that will keep me ahead as I continue to write. All encouragements and constructive criticism greatly welcomed. Thanks again to Arie – you keep me writing, sweets!

**Reviewer Responses**:

_lil badass, Maineiac_: Thanks so much for your kind comments! Flattery keeps me encouraged, let me tell ya. Here's another chapter for you!

_padfootMoony: _I have some vague ideas for romantic pairings, but nothing concrete yet. So, no Buffy/Sirius planned as yet, but...who knows what could happen. :)

_SiriusEarendil: _What would make you think Sirius is coming back? ;) Keep reading, I think you'll be pleased.

Thanks for the reviews guys, it makes writing all the more fun.

**Chapter Three - No One Can Serve Two Masters**

"Crucio."

It seared through every fiber of his being, pain like no other. One would think, after the number of times he had endured this particular curse that he would have built up some kind of immunity to it. Unfortunately, that was not the case. He worked to protect his mind; that was his chief concern. Death did not worry him - he knew he both deserved it and coveted it. No, what concerned him was the breaking of his mind. His mind was the only thing he had, the only thing that was his. Plus, he knew far too much about the Order. Were the Dark Lord to break him...well, it didn't really bear thinking about.

He was pulled from his thoughts as he felt the release of the curse.

"Perhaps that will be enough to focus your mind, Severus. I do not accept failure," Voldemort's red eyes seemed to bore into him, full of promise as to what more failure would bring.

"My Lord, I will not cease in my efforts until I have succeeded in this task," Severus said, rolling over and kissing the hem of the Dark Lord's robe, pushing his disgust far down inside of himself, "I live to serve you."

"Indeed. I suggest you keep that in mind," Voldemort looked away then, out over the gathered Death Eaters, the group less than half the size it had been a few weeks before, "We are too few now, thanks to Potter and the Old Man. We must increase our numbers, and it is obvious that humans fail far too easily." His eyes went to the figure, hidden in the shadows to the side. "What of the vampires, Damien? Have they made their decision yet?"

Damien slid out of the shadows, his pale skin accentuated by the meager light. Several of the gathered Death Eaters shivered as Damien moved closer, reacting to the waves of evil that radiated off of him. "They have, my Lord. They are...most eager to serve the Dark Lord and bring about darkness on the earth. They wait for your command."

Voldemort nodded, turning his eyes back to Snape, who was still crouched on the ground in front of him, "You see, Severus, already our numbers grow with the very darkest of those who walk this world." He leaned down then, pushing into Snape's personal space, boring into him with those red eyes, "But that is not enough. I want to release the very hounds of hell onto the grounds of Hogwarts. I want that boy to quiver

in fear as his worst nightmares rip his friends apart in front of him. I want the headmaster to die lost in the knowledge of how badly he failed. Find a way to fulfill my desire, or you will beg me to give you to the vampires before I am through with you." Snape did not have to fake the fear that coursed through him. He knew what the Dark Lord was capable of.

"I live to serve you, My Lord," he repeated, face to the ground in front of Voldemort, pushing thoughts of loyalty and devotion to the forefront of his mind.

Voldemort leaned back then, his eyes once more sweeping the gathered group, "All of you! You have one week's time. At my next call you will each bring two new followers to take the Mark and become one of us. Anyone who does not will not live to regret it. Now, get out of my sight."

Voldemort turned and disapparated, and the others began to do so as well, none overly anxious to remain. Snape slowly pulled himself to his feet, his body still racked with spasms from the cruciatus curse. 'Two new recruits and a potion to direct astral travel. It is good he expects so little of me,' Snape thought sarcastically, then apparated to the grounds just outside of Hogwarts. He began to quickly make his way towards the school and his potions lab. He would need some pain relief if he was going to make it to the Order meeting to inform them of Voldemort's latest orders and that the stalling time was up. They were going to have to think quickly if there was the slightest chance in hell of figuring a way out of this one.

* * *

Harry looked up at Number 12 Grimmauld Place with great trepidation. He had no desire to go back in there. Oh, he didn't want to go back to the Dursley's – no way, no how. But the last time he had been here...he thought back to Christmas, when Sirius had been happy and helping decorate and...there. He felt the flare of anger and shame swell up in him again. He didn't deserve to be here. He had cost his godfather his life, and now he was to be brought to his house to be protected. He wanted nothing more than to turn and run. But it wouldn't stop the pain; he was smart enough to know that. And then there was the promise he had made. He hadn't told anyone his promise and he didn't plan to, but it was still there all the same. That first night, back at the Dursleys, stuck in his room, with only his anguish and guilt for company, he had sworn an oath to Sirius. He was going to find Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort and he was going to make them pay. They would pay greatly for the pain they had caused, for the wrong they had done. He didn't know how yet, but their day was coming. In a small corner of his mind, there was a flash of triumph at his dark thoughts, but it was gone before he really noticed it.

He walked up the steps and, with a deep breath, through the door.

The first thing he noticed was how much brighter the entryway seemed to be. Many of the old portraits had been taken down and the room appeared to have had an excellent cleaning. It no longer looked like the entryway of the home of an evil, pureblood family. Harry tried to examine why that upset him; why, for just a moment, he longed for the return of the dark and dying appearance the place had held the year before. And yet, his first feelings were of irritation over the change. 'C'mon,' he chided himself, 'Sirius hated this place. He would be thrilled to see it being cleaned up and cared for.' Harry took a deep breath, using the moment of quiet to calm the flash of anger and push down the tears that seemed permanently lodged in his throat. But all he got was a moment, as the twins suddenly apparated straight in front of him.

"Harry!" one of them, Harry thought it was George, exclaimed.

"Just the person we've been looking forward to seeing," Fred said, clapping Harry on the back. He lowered his voice as he continued, "We need someone to test out our newest product."

Harry's eyes widened as he begin to shake his head. He found himself immensely relieved when Mrs. Weasley appeared and interrupted.

"Boys! I know you're not still trying to get someone to test those ridiculous items of yours!" Fred and George exchanged glances, flashed matching grins at Harry, and disapparated away. Molly shook her head, "Those boys, I swear...Harry! It's wonderful to see you dear! Oh my, you look like you haven't eaten all summer!" She turned to Moody, standing close behind, "Alastor, I thought you spoke to those Muggles, I thought you were going to make sure they were treating him better this time, I thought..."

Harry interrupted before Mrs. Weasley could make it into full-scale anger mode, "Really, Mrs. Weasley, I'm ok. I just...I haven't been all that hungry." He could instantly tell that saying that wasn't going to make anything better. He saw the pity that moved across her features, and couldn't help the anger that moved through him. 'She treated Sirius horrible last year,' he thought, but once again pushed down the anger, hiding it away.

"Oh, of course, Harry. I understand." For a moment no one seemed to know what to say and there was an awkward silence. Then Molly shook herself slightly, nodded once, and said briskly, "Well, we can put that lost weight right back, no worries there at all." She might've said more, but was interrupted as Ron, Hermione, and Ginny came barreling down the stairs.

"Harry, you finally made it, mate!" Ron exclaimed, and was quickly shushed by both Hermione and his mother.

"Sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all, but speaking in a quieter voice all the same.

Hermione gave Harry a quick hug and a long look, as if trying to find the answer to some question only she knew. When she glanced away, Harry wondered if she'd found her answer or not. Up until this point, Harry hadn't been completely certain how he'd feel meeting up with Ron and Hermione again. His moods were so strange of late. But, he instantly felt a sense of relief and joy to be standing with them again. Whatever else might go on, these were his friends and he was beyond happy to be back with them. For the first time in a month, he felt the knot of irritation and anger ease.

"Hey guys," he said, sending each of them a smile.

"Well, why don't you all help Harry get his stuff up to his room? Dinner's still an hour away, so you have some time," Molly said, smiling at the kids.

They nodded, and Harry moved off with them up the stairs. After they were gone, Molly turned to the others still standing in the entryway. "Well," she said, focusing on Remus, "How is he?"

Remus shook his head, "I'm not sure. He hasn't said anything, but..." he trailed off, his eyes going again to the landing ahead where the kids had disappeared, "He's definitely not himself."

Molly looked worried, "But that's to be expected, with...with everything that happened. Surely it's completely normal. It can't be...anything else." She searched Remus' face, looking for some reassurance that wasn't to be found.

Remus met her stare, and in his eyes she could see that he was worried as well, "I just don't know, Molly. I just don't know."

For a moment, the adults stood in the entryway, sharing looks of worry and concern, then Moody spoke, his gruff voice breaking the silence, "Well, no point standing around here worrying." He motioned to Tonks and Bill, "We've got other things we need to be about doing. We'll be back in time for dinner, Molly, so I hope you have plenty."

Molly sent Moody a wry grin, "Alastor, when do I ever not have plenty of food?"

They all laughed as they headed out the door.


	5. Come On and Rescue Me

**Harry Potter and the Chains of the Soul**

**By RyianaT**

**Disclaimer:** All things Buffy belong to Joss Whedon and Twentieth Century Fox; all things Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling and Warner Brothers. No profit is being made off this story.

**Summary:** Slayers, resurrections, transdimensional travel, Druidic rituals. Just when Harry thought his life couldn't get any stranger.

**Spoilers:** Through the end of Chosen for Buffy; through OoTP for Harry

**Reviewer Responses:**

**Delphinus, Susan, and lilbadass - **Thank you so much for your reviews! Here's another chapter for you. :)

As always, thanks to the greatest beta in the world, Arie. She is the best.

**Chapter Four – Come On and Rescue Me**

"Ok, so tell me again why we haven't broken out of here yet?" Faith said, blowing hair out of her face.

Buffy sighed and answered quietly, "We wanted to see what the flashy light was, remember? No way to get close enough without being captured, since the only humans around are the ones chained up working near it. Hence, the chains and not breaking out yet."

"Right." Faith didn't look anymore happy with this plan now then when Buffy had first suggested it earlier. As far as she was concerned, the better plan was still to attack them all first, then figure out what the what was. Though, she had to admit, there were an awful lot of demons here. So far, they figured that she and Buffy were just like all their other human slaves. She was more than ready to show them different. She did NOT like playing the damsel in distress part. She grimaced as the slimy demon moved closer, looking them over, but, at Buffy's elbow to her side, she put on a scared look and lowered her eyes to the ground. Oh yeah, WAY ready to show these guys who was boss.

Out of the corners of her eyes, Buffy studied the various demons and their surroundings. Evidently there was some sort of slave labor thing going on here. There were humans chipping at rocks and others carrying those rocks to big machines of light, where the rock was stripped away and a strange glowing metal left in its place. The human slaves didn't even look up as Buffy and Faith were brought in, ropes binding their hands and a large chain worked around their middles, with which they were being led. Except for one; one dark-haired man seemed vaguely interested by their arrival, though he quickly hid his interest and continued to work. The demon with the really big antlers that held the chain snarled something at Buffy and Faith. Buffy looked at him wide-eyed, for a moment forgetting the scared act. He had to be the all out ugliest demon she had ever seen, and she'd seen quite a few really ugly ones. She had evidently stared too long, as the demon seemed to take offense and smashed his fist into her face. She didn't fall, he'd have to hit her a whole lot harder for that to happen, but it certainly didn't feel good; made her head spin for a minute. She heard Faith yell out beside her, and the insectoid looking demon kicked Faith in the stomach, knocking her down, and Buffy with her. Buffy sighed to herself and thought 'Well, there went that plan.'

"Ok, that's it." Faith said, hopping back up from the hit.

"Faith!" Buffy hissed, trying to get her to calm down.

"Nope, I'm all done doing it this way, B. My turn to plan." She threw dirt in the face of the demon in front of her. As it stumbled back, she was yanked off her feet by the pull of the chain that she was still connected to. She used the momentum of the pull to turn the fall into a flip, planting both feet into the face of the demon holding the chain. 'Well, least I think that's his face,' she thought. The demon went down hard, loosing its hold on the chain as it did so. For a moment, time seemed to stop and everyone froze and the sight.

Into this silence, Buffy sighed, shaking her head at Faith, "You couldn't have waited just a little bit more?"

Faith grinned, "Not in my makeup, B."

And then all hell broke lose. The demons started pouring towards them from all over the camp, and there were a LOT of them. "Damn," Buffy said, looking around then back at Faith, "Time to get rid of this chain!"

Faith's smile was blinding, "About time!" She moved in concert with Buffy as they each grabbed the chain and pulled. Luckily, it was old and rusted, and not meant to deal with Slayer strength, so it broke quickly. Faith moved fast, whipping her end of the chain around to catch the head of the antler demon that had just regained his feet. "Ho, Ho, Ho, Rudolph," she said, yanking his head clean off his body. "Now that's just gross," she grimaced, using the chain as a whip against the next demon that came barreling her way.

Buffy meanwhile had vaulted over the first demon that had come at her, and swiftly made her way to the demon that held her scythe. "That's mine," she said, dropping and sweeping its feet out from under it, then flipping up, "And I want it back." The demon dropped the weapon, jabbered something unintelligible, and ran away. Buffy blinked in surprise as she grabbed up the weapon, "Wow," she said, swinging the scythe in a smooth motion and taking the head of the next demon that came at her, "Wish they'd all run away like that."

"LOOK OUT!" a voice cried from behind her, and she hit the ground just in time. She kicked up at the demon, breaking the wrist holding the sword that had tried to stab her. Faith's sword, she noticed, as she quickly dispatched that demon. She yelled out at Faith, and then tossed the sword in her direction. Faith caught it easily, yelled her thanks, and went back to the demons she was working on. Buffy turned to find the voice that had yelled the warning, seeing the dark-haired man who had noticed their arrival earlier.

"Thanks," she said, swinging the scythe and decapitating another demon as she made her way over to him.

He grinned at her, "No prob..." he suddenly lurched at her, shoving her out of the way of an oncoming fist. He pivoted around, joining his chained hands and swinging them into the demon's face. It "oofed" and fell backwards, where Buffy, finished it off. She didn't waste anymore time with thanks or talk. She quickly sliced through the chains binding the man, and went back to work.. He quickly grabbed up the dagger the dead demon still held, and moved into the fray. She didn't get much time to watch him, and couldn't spare much attention to how he was doing, but she did notice he fought them with a vengeance she had only rarely seen. She understood. She'd only been there a short time, and she wasn't impressed so far. She didn't imagine his stay here had been all flowers and puppies, especially when she took in his haggard appearance and the obvious evidence of bruises.

For several minutes, there was no more thinking and no more watching, there was only the fight – doing what Slayers had been made to do. With two Slayers and one enraged man, it really didn't take long to take out the rest of the demons. Though they weren't without injury. Faith was sporting a fairly significant gash across one arm, Buffy had sprained her wrist, and the man was limping slightly, but all things considered, they had come through relatively unscathed.

"You know," Faith said, looking around at the carnage, "is it just me, or were these guys pathetically easy to take out? I mean, the two orange big teethed guys we came across were tougher than all of these put together."

Buffy started to agree, but it was the man who responded, "That's because these are just the slave guards. No one expects the slaves to try to do anything, particularly fight. We don't want to hang around too long, though. The big guys will be coming 'round later to check on the progress."

Buffy nodded, "Allright, lets free these other people and we can be on our way."

But the man shook his head, "No point in freeing them, there's not anything you can do for them."

Buffy looked at him in disbelief, "Look, mister...whoever. I don't just leave people in slavery. Maybe you can walk off and leave them, but I can't! I'm not leaving here until..."

"Buffy."

It was Faith, and when Faith called her by her full name, it usually was not a good thing. Buffy made her way over to where Faith stood in front of one of the human slaves. It was only now that Buffy realized that they had never stopped working, even during the battle. They continued to move and work, paying no attention to Buffy or Faith whatsoever. As Buffy watched, Faith glanced at her, then waved her hand in front of the face of the man she stood in front of. Though he had stopped when Faith stepped in front of him, he showed no reaction whatsoever to her presence and did not blink at the hand in front of his face.

"It's like I told you," the man said quietly from behind them, "you can't help them. They don't have souls. I've no clue how they got here or why they don't have their souls, but they are always like this." He met Buffy's eyes sadly, "You can't help them."

Buffy clenched her jaw looking at the man, back at the people moving around, and back at the man, then nodded. "You know anything about the flashy light machine?" she asked, and in her voice he heard the tremble of anger and sadness at the loss of these people she didn't even know. He knew then that, whoever these two were and however they had ended up in this vile place, they were good guys. He wasn't alone anymore.

For a moment, the awesome feeling of that thought swelled up inside him, and he surprisingly found his vision blurry with tears. He quickly shook his head, clearing his throat, and banished all thoughts of such away for dwelling on another time. When he had time. "I know that it somehow takes the ore out of the rock and makes it into that strange metal," answered her, pointing out some of the finished product waiting on a car nearby, "I know the big guys come in every so often and take the finished metals somewhere else. I also know that its magic of some sort. I don't know what it's for or why." He shrugged, flashing her an apologetic look. "I wasn't exactly in on their plans, after all."

Buffy sent him a wry grin and nod of acknowledgment as she grabbed up a piece of the metal. It was small, approximately the size of a quarter. She could feel the magic that ran through it; it made her sick to her stomach just to hold it. However, it also had a vaguely familiar feeling that she couldn't quite place. It almost felt like...home?

"Hey, B, I agree the metal's all pretty and shiny and stuff, but I'm really thinking moving on is probably our best move at the moment," Faith said, sending a sarcastic look Buffy's way, "I'd really like to be somewhere that's else when the bosses show up."

Buffy sent a look of her own back at Faith, which Faith acknowledged with a grin, then nodded, "All right," she said, looking at the man, "which direction did they send the metal in?"

He raised an eyebrow, but pointed off to the west without comment. Buffy nodded grimly, her eyes moving off in that direction, "Then that's our direction."

The man looked ill at that statement, "Forgive me for arguing with a pretty lady holding a fairly intimidating weapon, but...why is that our direction?"

Buffy rolled her eyes at the strange compliment in that sentence, then sent him a hard look. "Several reasons, not least of which is they've highly pissed me off," she said, looking in the direction of the soulless people still working, then down at the metal she still held in her hand, "But there's something going on here. I don't know what it is, but it's got something to do with this metal. We need to find out what. Plus, it's the best place I can think to look for a way out of here. Unless, of course, you're thinking of building a summer home here?"

He made a face at that. "Nah. The neighbors are killers," he joked weakly, then sighed, "I really dislike your plan. However, seeing as I don't have a better one at the moment..." he trailed off and shrugged.

Buffy sent him a small smile, then looked around. "We need to be armed and we need some supplies. Let's grab up what we can find and get out of here."

Both Faith and the man nodded, moving to gather supplies and weapons. When they had gotten what they could conceivably carry, they begin to make their way out of the camp, going west. As they walked away, Faith turned to the guy curiously, "So, who're you?"

He flashed a grin at her, and in that grin she could tell that he was normally a fairly good-looking guy, even if at the moment he greatly resembled death warmed over.

"Name's Sirius," he said, "Sirius Black."


	6. We All Grow Up Sometime

**Harry Potter and the Chains of the Soul**

by RyianaT

**Disclaimer:** Potterverse owned by Rowling and Warner Brothers; Buffyverse owned by Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Twentieth Century Fox. No profit is being made.

**Spoilers**: Buffy, up through the end of Chosen; HP, through OotP.

**Author's Notes**: Sorry for the late postings, folks. I was out of town of Friday. I will post the next chapter this Friday, per usual.

**Reviewer Responses**:

WW: I don't know if either Buffy or Faith would be aware of astrology enough to realize that Sirius is the name of the dogstar. However, much later in the story, it might be fun to have them find out! :) Thanks for the review!

Sabia: Keep reading, we will be touching base with the other Scoobies before too long. And no pairings set up, as of yet, but...we'll see where we go. I'll keep your preferences in mind! ;)Thanks for the review!

SiriusEarendil: Yes, I should probably warn you that I am a big fan of cliffhangers. Where I can, I will definitely leave a chapter at a cliffie, since I feel like it adds to the excitement of reading the story. However, I will really try to only do that when I already have the following chapter pretty much ready to go. I'm evil, but not THAT evil. :) And look, no cliffies here! g

I must take this moment and thank my beta, Arieanna. She is such an encouragement to me and helps make this story so very good. Go, and read her stories under her name here. They are very, very good!

**Chapter Five** – **We All Grow Up Sometimes**

Dinner at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place was as noisy as it ever was with a very large portion of Order members, in particular Weasley Order members, in attendance. Harry was glad for it, actually. Though he said very little, it was nice to get lost in the noise and warmth of it all. There was no speaking of Order business or any business at all, really, unless one counted the twins' attempts at starting a joke shop in Hogsmeade. Harry had little doubt that Mrs. Weasley had put the kibosh on all such discussions at the dinner table due to the presence of the "children", as he knew she thought of them. According to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, Molly Weasley had been even more of a Mother Hen than was usual, checking on them often and being diligent to see that they knew nothing about what was happening in Order meetings.

Ginny had told him, "Quite frankly, Mum's been manic about us being safe since the whole thing at the Ministry."

Harry couldn't help but see Mrs. Weasley's point of view. 'I did, after all, almost get two of her children killed that day,' he thought to himself, bitterness and self-disgust warring within him. Then he pushed that thought away, 'No, if Dumbledore had told me the truth, none of us would've gone there that day. I would've known to look out for him, I would've known Voldemort would try something like that. He's the one who should feel guilty.'

Harry was once again surprised by the vehemence of his anger at Dumbledore. He had thought, that day in the Headmaster's office, that he had gotten out most of his rage at the man. Lately, however, that anger had returned full-force. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made to be mad at the leader of the Order. He sighed to himself as he stole a glance towards the entryway. Dumbledore had yet to make an appearance. Harry was unsure what his reaction would be to the old man, and couldn't quite decide if he wanted to see him and have the confrontation or not.

"Eat up, Harry!" Mrs. Weasley interrupted his musings. "Time we put some meat back on those bones." She smiled at him as she put some more food on his plate. He answered her smile with a small one of his own, then tuned back to the forceful Quidditch conversation happening between Ron and Ginny. Ginny, it seemed, was every bit the Quidditch fan that her brother was. She simply thought that the Chudley Cannons should be locked in a room and never allowed to play again. Harry couldn't help but laugh with the others at Ron's look of horror and betrayal when Ginny made her suggestion. It was in the middle of this laughter that the kitchen door swung open and Severus Snape entered.

The kitchen quieted quickly at the dour man's entrance and he took in the whole group, patented sneer in place. He ignored the group of them, focusing in on Arthur Weasley and asking, "Where is Dumbledore?"

Arthur shook his head, "He hasn't made it in yet. He should be here momentarily." He paused, and then hesitantly asked, "Why don't you sit and have some dinner with us, Severus? There's plenty."

Ron, Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and the twins all had to fight the grimaces that crossed their faces at the thought of the Potion Master's joining them. Actually, several of the adults joined them in their revulsion, though they hid it much better.

Snape looked over the people at the table, his face tightening at seeing Harry there, before he turned back to Mr. Weasley. "I'm not hungry," he said, his voice low and harsh, "I'll await the Headmaster in the study." With that, he moved past them all and out of the room. The atmosphere relaxed considerably with him gone. The twins both made faces at the door the man had left by, causing Ron and Ginny to laugh outright, and even Hermione to break a smile.

Harry though, saw none of this. His vision had gone red at the sight of the former Death Eater and he had fought greatly against his desire to just jump up and curse him outright. In his mind's eye, he kept seeing Sirius fall into the veil over and over again, interspersed with Snape throwing him out of his classroom, refusing to teach him Occlumency. 'If the greasy git had just put aside his irrational hatred for five minutes,' Harry thought, 'my godfather would be alive.' He seethed with the knowledge that Snape was walking around, messing up people's lives with his stupid prejudices, while Sirius was...

He jumped as a hand landed on his shoulder, swinging around to where Moody sat, looking at him with an eyebrow raised. "You alright, boy?" he asked, studying Harry closely.

Harry nodded, pulling his anger back under control. "Yeah, fine," he said, turning away from the strange man and looking back towards the door Snape had exited by. He was going to have to do better at controlling himself, he realized. He had every intention of standing up to Dumbledore and Snape this year, but in order to do that the right way, he couldn't come off as some angry kid. He would not be set aside this year, but he wouldn't convince the adults of that by yelling, screaming, and cursing people. What he needed, was a few minutes to just calm down, to pull himself back together.

Unfortunately, that was not to be, for it was at that moment Albus Dumbledore stuck his head into the kitchen.

"Hello all," the man said, looking at the group and then focusing on Harry. "Hello Harry. I'm glad you're here."

In that moment, Harry found himself strangely caught between two completely conflicting emotions: great, almost overwhelming anger at the old man, and a strange sense of safety and relief at seeing him there. He was so confused by this strange jumble of feelings that he could do little other then nod in the man's direction.

"Would you like some supper, Albus? I made some stew and there's more than enough," Molly said, sending the Headmaster a smile.

"Alas, though I am quite fond of your stew, Molly, there are several things that we must be discussing. I'm afraid we'll have to begin the Order meeting immediately, though I do hate to interrupt a good dinner," Dumbledore said, smiling slightly at the group.

The adults immediately begin to stand, pushing back from the table and heading towards the door. Molly looked over at Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny, and made a motion towards their rooms, "You lot head on upstairs..." she began.

Harry opened his mouth to argue with Mrs. Weasley, but he wasn't fast enough. The argument came from the most surprising of places.

"No." Ginny Weasley said, in a strong, confident, and no-nonsense tone. In fact, she sounded much like her mother, though Harry doubted Mrs. Weasley appreciated that fact very much. At the moment, Ginny had locked eyes not with her mother, but with Albus Dumbledore. "Last year, we were all kept in the dark and treated as children. But, guess what, we ended up involved anyway. If you need to send me away, fine, I'll go. Though, I'll tell you now that I WILL end up involved in whatever happens to these three. If you have to send Ron and Hermione away, fine, though it seems pretty pointless because they'll end up right in the middle very soon. But there is no bloody way you can send Harry away."

"Ginevra Weasley!" Molly said, her tone shocked and angered.

But Ginny wasn't through, and she shook her head, "No Mum, I won't stop and I won't be quiet. V-Voldemort, "she forced the name past her lips, "is after Harry. Harry had to face him as an 11-year-old, for Merlin's sake! Do any of you honestly think that the Death Eaters are going to hold off on attacking Harry, or ANY of us for that matter, simply because we're young? No, they won't, they are after Harry and they want him dead. And they are after us because we're close to Harry and because we stand against everything Voldemort stands for." She looked around then, at the group of adults staring at her in surprise, "I know you want us to be safe, Mum. All of you do. But we're not safe. Right now, no one is. And we're the best eyes and ears you've got at Hogwarts. We're involved in this. At the very least, Harry needs to be included in your meetings, because he deserves to know what's coming."

She stood strong and tall, looking at them with a maturity and composure that shocked them all. Maybe she wasn't grown yet, but she'd done a lot of maturing during the fiasco at the Ministry of Magic and during the last year at Hogwarts. And, next to Harry, she had more experience with Tom Riddle than anyone. They didn't get to be kids anymore, and that was just a fact.

Harry could see the looks of shock that Hermione and Ron, and all of the adults, were sending Ginny's way. He knew the look on his face matched theirs. But he had never been prouder to be a friend of Ginny Weasley's more than in that moment. He sent her a grateful smile; maybe someone did understand some of what he felt after all. Almost as if it had been planned, he, Ron and Hermione moved up to stand next to Ginny, supporting what she said with their presence.

Dumbledore looked at them, his expression unreadable, and for several moments, there was silence. Then Molly Weasley exploded, "Albus, you can't actually be thinking...that's simply...they are just CHILDREN!"

Albus looked at them for a moment more, his eyes turning to settle on Harry. Harry met his gaze squarely, "I haven't been encouraging them, sir, if that's what you're thinking. But Ginny's right. And you did promise that there would be no more secrets. I, more than anyone else here, deserve to know."

Albus found a strange thing happening then; he had trouble meeting the 16-year-old boy's eyes. Finally, he sighed and turned to Molly, his eyes full of great sadness, "In some ways Molly, perhaps they are children. But, I'm afraid that Harry and Ginny are in the right in all the ways that matter. However much we would greatly want them to enjoy the carefree lives of children, because of who they are and the state of the world today, that will not, and cannot, happen."

He looked back at the four and raised his hand. Molly had only time to gasp, "Albus, NO!" before he spoke.

"Ego iam subiungo tu ut ordo Phoenix." He looked at the four standing before him, "I have joined you to the Order, but you must now take an oath. Please raise your wands."

All four had their wands in hand almost before he had finished the sentence. Some might have been surprised to find they had their wands on them, even in the safety of their headquarters. But they had learned the simple lesson that Moody was so fond of teaching; in the end, "Constant Vigilance" paid off.

"Do you give your oath to work against those who would plunge the world in darkness, to fight the evil that would attempt to conquer the world, and to never, by intention, betray those others who are also members of this Order?" Dumbledore asked, his voice strong and solemn. He was, in that moment, the very powerful wizard that Voldemort greatly feared.

All four of the teens answered automatically and together, with no hesitation in their voices, "Yes." They were all, except for Hermione, surprised when their wands sent off a bright, blue stream that attached to Albus' wand, which was now in his hand. Even Harry, raised in the Muggle world, with little knowledge of the intricacies of magic, didn't need this explained to him. This oath was magic and binding. It could be broken, Pettigrew was evidence of that, but the cost of that breaking would be dear indeed.

As the blue light tapered off and went out, Dumbledore put his wand away and gave the four of them a tired smile. "Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix. You have the...privilege...of being our youngest members."

They all nodded slightly at Dumbledore, somewhat happy to now be included with the "grown-ups." Dumbledore looked at them as they exchanged smiles and thought that they really had no idea of the responsibility that came with being a member of this group. But then his eyes settled on Harry who, though he exchanged small smiles with the others, was still looking at Dumbledore. As Dumbledore stared into those green eyes he knew that one of them, at least, knew exactly the responsibility involved. The young boy unfairly carried more weight than the rest of them ever would.

"Well then," Dumbledore spoke briskly now, over the excited whispers of Hermione and the quiet tears of Molly Weasley. "We have no more time for delays. Let us all adjourn to the study, shall we?"

The group moved quickly into the study, leaving Harry and Dumbledore as the last ones standing in the kitchen. Despite his firm intentions of being involved in the Order, he had never intended to have his friends involved to this extent. And he couldn't help but feel guilty for this step. Worse though, was the fear of what would come in the days ahead, what his friends would have to face.

"Come Harry."

Harry looked up into the surprisingly understanding eyes of Dumbledore, and for once, felt no anger. He nodded and followed the older man out of the room.


	7. Wait! Let Me Explain

**Disclaimer:** Potterverse is owned by Rowling and Warner Brothers; Buffyverse is owned by Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Twentieth Century Fox. No profit is being made.

**Spoilers**: Buffy - through the end of Chosen, then AU; Harry - through OotP

**Reviewer Responses**:

SiriusEarendil: Thanks! I actually really like to character of Ginny, especially as we saw her developed in OotP. I'm so glad that you felt I was developing her well. I can't wait to see what Rowling does with her.

PomegranateQueen: No problems, I like Dawn too. Well, seasons 5 and 7 Dawn, anyway. In any case, Dawn, along with the other Scoobies will be making a few appearances in this story (the first in two chapters I think). However, they will not play a large part in the story. They will be a presence, but not a large one.

As always, huge hugs and thanks to Arie, the absolute best beta in the world!

**Chapter Six – Wait! Let Me Explain...**

Ok, so there just wasn't night here. This was the conclusion Buffy had come to after all the walking they had done. There was just no other explanation. They had been going, only stopping for short breaks, for hours and hours. By this time, the moon should have risen. But there was no sunset, no stars, no lessening of the heat. The sun stayed in the same place and the harsh temperature and glare were really beginning to grate on her nerves.

"Ok, B. That's it." Faith said suddenly, swinging around to look at the blonde Slayer, while pointing to a group of large rocks just a short distance away. "That's the place we're stopping to rest. I get we're all with the big mission and stuff, but I'm tired and, seeing how there doesn't seem to be any freaking night here, I'm thinking now's a good time to stop and that's a good place to rest." She looked from Buffy to Sirius and back again. "No arguments? Good." And giving them no chance to contradict her, she headed in the direction of the rocks.

Buffy sighed, but couldn't help her grin. Faith really had changed in a lot of ways and she was trying really hard. Had been trying since she had returned with Willow from Los Angeles. But there was still only so much following she could handle before she did things her own way. Really, though, Buffy had no arguments. She was tired too, and this seemed as good a place to get some rest as any.

When they reached the rocks, they managed to find an outcropping that was large enough for them to rest under. It was situated in such a way that someone would have to be really looking for them in order to see them. A little too perfectly in Buffy's opinion, but she was too tired to think much about it.

For a little while, as they settled down and drank some of the disgusting substance that passed for water in this awful place, there was silence, allowing each of them to rest their bodies and their minds. Finally, though, curiosity got the better of Faith and she turned to their dark-haired companion.

"So, Sear, what's your story? How'd a guy like you wind up in a hell-hole like this?"

Buffy rolled her eyes at the pun, but Sirius had to grin. He liked these two; he liked them quite a lot.

"Well," he said, "It's something of a long story, involving nasty villains, a big battle, dark wizards..." He trailed off, expecting surprise at the mention of wizards. Both women looked at him with no surprise, waiting expectantly for him to continue. "It doesn't surprise you that I'm a wizard?"

Buffy shrugged, "My best friend's a mega-powerful witch. Magic sort of the norm where we're from."

Sirius looked surprised, "Which magical school did she attend?"

Both Buffy and Faith looked at him blankly, "Magical school?" Faith asked, "They have special schools for that?"

But Buffy was shaking her head, "No way. If there were Giles would know about them, and he definitely would've sent Willow to one."

Now it was Sirius' turn to look confused, "Yes, there are magical schools. I attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland. I think most Yanks go to the New Orleans Witchcraft Training Institute or the Salem Institute of Magic. She had to have attended one of them."

Faith was shaking her head again, "Hey no way, man. I lived in Boston for years, took several way crappy "vacation" trips to Salem. No such school there."

Sirius and Faith began to argue back and forth about the existence, or lack thereof, of these schools of magical instruction. Buffy, however, had a sudden suspicion forming in the back of her mind.

"Hey," she said, interrupting the argument, "Do you have shrimp where you live?"

Both Faith and Sirius stared at her, as if she had lost her mind. Sirius sent a worried look at Faith and then looked back at Buffy, "Um...well...not exactly where I live. I mean, there's some restaurants in the area that ship it in from the ocean, but..." He trailed off, not really knowing where else to go with the shrimp, and not having the slightest clue as to why she was interested in shrimp all of a sudden. "Why," he finally asked, "are you hungry for some?"

She rolled her eyes, "What, you're carrying some in your pocket? Of course not, I'm just wondering if maybe we're both right. Maybe there are magical schools and there are not magical schools."

If anything, they now looked even more uncertain of her mental stability. She shook her head and sighed, "Look, its possible that Faith and I are wrong, that in all our dealings with the magical and weird, we just somehow missed knowledge of these schools. But, I don't think so. I think that we're from different dimensions. I think in your dimension," she pointed at Sirius, "there are magical schools, but in our dimension, there are none."

Faith was actually nodding by this point, seeing where Buffy was coming from. It actually made sense. Sirius blinked in surprise as he looked from one girl to the other, "Where are you people from that you so easily accept the existence of whole other dimensions?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow at Sirius, "You're sitting in a hell dimension and you're finding the concept of different dimensions a hard one?"

He thought for a moment, than quirked a grin at her, "I guess I see your point."

For the next few moments, they discussed some of the differences in their separate dimensions. Buffy and Faith were highly amused to find that the witches and wizards in Sirius' world used wands. "Red'll love that one," Faith laughed. She looked over at Sirius, "So, what do you do in your world: butcher, baker, candlestick maker?"

Sirius looked very confused at that and shook his head, "Uh no. I used to be an Auror, a long time ago. That's a like a policeman of the wizarding world," he explained at their blank looks. He was lost for a moment in thoughts of how he and James had been partners. They'd had big plans to bring in more Death Eaters than any other Auror. God, he missed James.

"So, you don't do this...uh Auror thing anymore?" Faith asked, slightly concerned at being in the presence of a former cop. Though, she supposed, crimes committed in other dimensions where a bit out of his jurisdiction.

Now Sirius looked vaguely uncomfortable, "Uh no."

"Why?" Buffy asked. "You look like you have fond memories of it."

"Um, yes, but...well," Sirius looked suddenly, decidedly uncomfortable, "There's the little problem that I'm something of a wanted criminal."

Both girls stared at him in shock, for a moment at a complete loss for words. "Oh that's great," Buffy muttered, reaching up to rub her head where the headache was beginning to form, "It must be my lot in life to hang around with ex-cons."

Faith shot Buffy a look, and then swung back to Sirius, "So, what're you wanted for?"

If anything, Sirius looked even more uneasy at this point, "Well, I'm wanted for...um...well...murder." He rushed on as he saw Buffy and Faith exchange glances again, "But I'm innocent! I absolutely did NOT do what they threw me in prison for!"

Buffy raised an eyebrow at him, but rather calmly, in his opinion, said, "Why don't you start at the beginning."

He nodded, and as quickly as possible ran through his story of how he had ended up in Azkaban. "I escaped several years back, but I've, or rather, I had been, helping with the Order, trying to stop Voldemort and keep James and Lily's son Harry safe. He's my godson and there's this..." he trailed off, surprised to realize he had been about to share the information of the prophecy with two almost complete strangers. It was very unlike him to trust people so quickly, but he did. He trusted Buffy and Faith as much as he trusted Remus or Harry. He wondered what it was about them that made that so, though he figured saving him from torture and a life of slavery had at least something to do with it.

"So, you were betrayed by one of your best friends and ended up spending twelve years in this, uh, Aspakan place."

Sirius, grinning, interrupted Buffy, "Azkaban. Yes, it's a wizarding prison. Horrible place," he shivered slightly, "It was the worst place I'd ever seen, until I fell through the veil and ended up here. This place makes Azkaban look like a bloody holiday vacation."

Buffy imagined that was so, as she couldn't think of anyplace she'd been that was worse than this one, and she'd been in some pretty rough spots herself. It wasn't so much the terrain of the place, but the...feeling the place gave off. It just felt very wrong. "So this, uh, Voldie person, who's he?"

Sirius laughed out loud this time, "Its Voldemort, although, I think I like Voldie a lot better." He let out a sigh and his expression became serious, "Voldemort's the darkest wizard of our time. He's responsible for the deaths of my best friends and countless other good witches and wizards. Most people in my world are scared to even say his name. He's after my godson, Harry. No one knows quite how, but when Voldemort went to kill James and Lily, he tried to kill Harry as well, only the spell he used rebounded off of Harry and hit Voldemort, almost killing him. He was little more than a spirit for years. A couple of years back, though, he managed to find a spell to return himself to...well, life, I suppose, after a fashion. Now, he wants Harry dead, since Harry's the only one to ever have stopped him." Sirius looked at the two women watching him with rapt attention. "Harry's seen and endured more than most people do in their entire lifetimes, and he's only sixteen years old. He's got this destiny..." Sirius trailed off, worry for his godson filling him. Harry thought he was dead, and Sirius knew the boy would blame himself. The last thing that boy needed was more weight on his already overburdened shoulders.

Buffy pulled a face at the word destiny and was fairly surprised to see a matching look on Faith's face as well. "Destiny," the dark-haired Slayer muttered, "what a crock."

Buffy couldn't help but send a grin Faith's way, as they shared a look of understanding and compassion for this young boy they had never met. These two definitely understood about duty and destiny.

Sirius sighed, bringing their attention back to him, "I need to get back to him. I don't care if I'm supposed to be dead, I'm not leaving my godson to face all of this alone." Suddenly, his eyes went hard and his jaw set, "If getting back to him means I take on every demon in this wretched realm, I'll do it, willingly and gladly. I owe it to James and Lily. And to Harry."

Buffy and Faith nodded, understanding the sentiment and agreeing with it. They had their own friends and loved ones to check on as well. Not for the first time, Buffy wondered if her friends had made it out safely; if they were all ok. She tuned back in when Faith spoke up.

"Well, you're not the only one John Q.'s on the lookout for." Sirius took in her sad look with raised eyebrows. She glanced at him, then looked away. "Let's just say, we all have skeletons in our closets." She blinked for a second as she thought about her statement, "Well, the metaphorical kind anyway. I don't think there's actually any skeletons in our closets, are there B?"

Buffy grinned at that, "Only the Halloween kind." Faith nodded, seeming to relax a little at that. Sirius looked at both of them in concern, "Who ARE you people?"

Buffy and Faith both smiled at that, as Faith answered, "We're Slayers. We're what the boogeymen are afraid of."

Buffy took up Faith's explanation, "We fight the vampires and the other dark things that go bump in the night." She sent a sad smile in Faith's direction, "Too bad Giles isn't here to give the speech. Been way too long since the last time he got to say it."

Sirius looked vaguely confused, but his brain was going a mile a minute. He had seen these two fight and they were amazing at it, regardless of how tiny and fragile they both looked. Especially Buffy. He couldn't help but think what a benefit these two would be in the fight against Voldemort. 'Voldie,' he thought to himself, grinning.

He looked at the two women in front of him. "Listen, I know both of you must be anxious to find a way back to your own dimension. But, if we were to find a way back and to travel between them, would you consider coming to mine and helping against Voldemort? You have no idea what an asset you'd be and how many people you would help."

Faith looked automatically interested, but Buffy's expression was reserved. She spoke tentatively, "Don't think I don't want to, because I would greatly like to help your godson. But, we have no clue what the ramifications of us entering your dimension would be. We might come over and make things worse. Plus, I know my friends are looking for us. I don't think we can make any promises about where we're going right now."

Faith looked slightly put out by Buffy's reasoning, but Sirius was nodding. "Of course, you're very likely right. Just...think about it, maybe? Just in case it is an option?"

He looked so hopeful in that moment that Buffy couldn't find it in her to refuse him. She nodded, "All right, we'll consider it." He sent her a warm smile and she matched it with one of her own. A part of her, surprisingly, was as interested in the chance to see his world as Faith was. But, the adult part of her knew she needed to get back. She had Dawn to think about. God, she hoped Dawn was ok. She sighed and shook off the painful thoughts. "We should probably get some rest now. I don't imagine we'll have too many chances for sleep here."

Faith spoke up, "We'll need to set up watches. Don't want anybody sneaking up on us while we're sleeping. I'll take the first one."

Buffy nodded, "Good idea, wake me for the second one and Sirius can take the last one."

With that said, Faith moved off to the front of the outcropping to keep watch, while Buffy and Sirius settled down to get what rest they could. Though, with their heavy thoughts, neither got much sleep.


	8. But what if this time they really ARE st...

**Disclaimer:** Whedon and Rowling own them, I do not. No profit is being made.

**Author's Notes**: Ah, PomegranateQueen, I was wrong. Here we start finally seeing the Scoobies pop up.

**Reviewer's Responses**:

Slimpun: Thanks for the review, here's an update for you!

Bob the Almightly: Thank you! I am trying to avoid the usual cliches, though I have come across several stories that use them really well. I can't promise there won't be pairings eventually (I'm a romantic at heart), but I won't be attempting to pair everybody up. I'll try to keep the mushy stuff to a bare minimum. :) Thanks for the review!

Padfoot and Moony: Thank you so much for your words! I think you're my new best friend. ;) I probably will change the summary, but I'm not sure how to change it to make it better. Any suggestions?

Thanks, as always, to Arie!

**Chapter Seven – But What if This Time They Really ARE Stuck in a Hell Dimension?**

It was a quiet group that got off the bus in front of the Wolfram and Hart building in Los Angeles. They were all bruised and battered. They were all exhausted. Those alone would've been enough for their long faces and slumped shoulders. But, they'd lost a lot of people, a lot of friends in this fight. That had been expected, but you're never really prepared for loss. The pain was made worse though by the fact that their two leaders were gone. The two that they had ultimately looked to for decisions and direction. The two original slayers.

Giles, Willow, and Robin had attempted to keep spirits at least somewhat up. They tried to keep them moving, directing them into the building and towards some seats where they could wait while the remaining 'leaders' met and tried to decide what happened next. Willow looked over in concern to where Xander and Dawn had taken seats. Out of all of them, those two had lost the most: former-fiancé, sister, and friends, all in one fell swoop. At the moment, Willow was shoving her pain way down deep. It would have to be dealt with before too long, but for now she pushed the anguish away, along with the desire to **do** something about it. To find just the right spell...she shook the thoughts away, centering herself with some of the calming words the coven had taught her. She'd torn apart the fabric of the world before. "Maybe," she thought to herself, "Maybe it's just time to let her...let them rest."

Angel and Wesley walked up then, pulling her out of her long thoughts. "Giles, Willow," Angel said, his tone even. But his eyes betrayed the calmness of his voice. His eyes spoke of shared pain and of far too much loss. "We've set up the Hyperion for you to stay at. It's not in the greatest of conditions, but it's livable and there's room for everyone there."

Giles took charge. It was, after all, what he did, what he shared in common with Buffy and Faith. When everyone else was down, they kept going. "Thank you, Angel," he said, nodding at the souled vampire. "I don't know how long we'll need it. We'll need...time..." he trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.

Angel let out a humourless laugh at that. "Time heals all wounds, right?" He didn't sound like he believed it and Willow found herself in complete agreement with his disbelief. "Isn't it enough to lose your best friend twice in your lifetime?" she thought to herself, feeling the pain and anger stirring again.

She tuned back into Angel as he went on. "Take all the time you need. The hotel's yours for as long as you need it."

Giles nodded again, "Robin, why don't you take the girls over there and begin getting them settled in? We have a few things to discuss with Angel and then we'll be over."

Willow could see that Robin seriously considered arguing with Giles. But, he seemed to realize it would be futile and turned to the girls, "Ok, everybody. Back on the bus." It showed their exhaustion and despondency when none of them even so much as groaned. They simply stood and filed out, Andrew trailing behind them quietly, leaving the Scoobies, Angel, and Wesley standing behind.

For a moment, they simply stood in the busy lobby of the Wolfram and Hart building, watching the people moving around them. There were so many words that needed to be said, explanations to be given. But for the moment, they simply stood and shared in the pain of losing their friends. The silence was finally broken, surprisingly, by Dawn.

"So, are we gonna do this meet thing, like, ever? Cause I'd really like to get it done," she said, her voice quiet and tired. Willow decided she would really prefer if Dawn would get angry. If she would yell and scream and blame everyone and rail at the world. This quiet, accepting Dawn was entirely too grown up and seemed a signal of all the changes that they would need to be accepting.

Wesley nodded, "Of course. We can go up to the conference room."

The trip up was made in silence, each of them wrapped up in their own thoughts and grief. When they were finally all seated, with drinks of various flavors, the vast majority of them alcoholic, except in Dawn's case, in hand, Angel spoke quietly, "Are you sure...are you sure they're...gone?"

Giles tried to speak, but had to stop to swallow the lump of grief that sat in his throat. It was Xander who answered the question, "We watched as a crater replaced what used to be a fairly decently sized suburb. They couldn't..." he stopped, his jaw tightening and shook his head, his eyes finally meeting Angel's, "There's no way."

Angel looked away, taking a deep, though unneeded breath. Then he surprised everyone when his glass suddenly sailed across the room, crashing against the wall and shattering into thousands of pieces. For a moment he had to fight an incredible desire for the time when Jasmine had been alive. For the complete peace and lack of pain felt when under her spell. He noticed the wary looks he was receiving from the others and sighed, looking down at the table. "Sorry," he apologized, and rubbed his hand over his face.

It was his turn to jump when another glass crashed where his had. He blinked in surprise and turned with the others to look at Xander, who sat looking at where his glass had hit the wall. Xander turned back to the others and gave a half smile, "It looked like it felt good. Thought I'd give it a go."

Dawn raised both eyebrows at him and sent him her own small smile. "Did it work?"

Xander shrugged at her, "I'd need to throw a few more to know for sure."

Wesley looked at Xander calmly, and deadpanned, "Should I send for more glasses then?"

Xander blinked in surprise at Wesley making a joke, then sent him a more genuine smile, "Nah. Thanks though."

For a moment, the group shared in the light atmosphere, before Giles brought them back to the point with a sigh, "I'm afraid I'm at a loss as to where we go from here. I have a group full of young slayers, and many more out there who have no idea of why they've suddenly become much stronger and faster than they were before. And I don't...I don't know how to train them. To teach them. I should, I know. But, I can't...I can't be a watcher again. I'm afraid my heart can't handle anymore." He looked down at the table now, as if the grain in the wood might hold the answers he looked for and the cure for his pain.

Silence reigned again, before it was broken by Willow's quiet voice, "What if they're not gone?"

Everyone blinked at her in surprise and disbelief. "Wills, maybe you missed that part of the conversation earlier? You know, the part about the crater?!" Xander said, shaking his head at her.

"I know about the crater, Xander, I saw it too. But, we were **inside** the hellmouth, which is, technically, a gateway to a different dimension. If they were still inside there when Sunnydale collapsed then there is the possibility that they are still alive, but are stuck where they are because the gateway's been closed," she said, her voice raising some as the thoughts occurred to her. She started to go on, but was interrupted by Giles rising from the table.

"You...I cannot believe you!" he spoke in quiet tones, but the fury in his voice radiated with each word. "Did you not learn your lesson the first time you went messing around with life and death? How can you even..." he stopped, too angry to even continue speaking.

Willow's eyes had gone wide, first with shock and then with anger, "How can you think that of me? Did I learn my **lesson**? Yeah Giles, I think I learned it when I flayed a guy alive and tried to end the world myself! And when I found out I had ripped my friend out of the peace and contentment of heaven! Yes, I learned my lesson quite well, thank you very much!"

Giles didn't look any happier, "Then how can you even suggest...how can you even possibly be considering this?"

"God, Giles, I'm not considering **anything** at this point! I'm just saying we should investigate very carefully before we do anything else. If Buffy's really...if she and Faith are really...gone, then...we need to move on and let them rest. I wouldn't..." she stopped, the tears spilling out. "I know I did wrong last time. I brought Buffy back for me more than I did because I thought she was in some demon dimension," her jaw tightened and she met Giles' eyes squarely, "but damn it, they **were** in the portal to a hell dimension! If there is some chance they are stuck in a hell dimension, then I want to know it. I won't leave them stuck there. I am **not** grasping at straws and I am not just doing the big wishful thinking here. I just want...I want to make sure. That's all."

She stopped, swallowing and brushing angrily at the tears that she couldn't seem to stop. Giles was looking away now, out the window that gave a beautiful view of the LA skyline. For a few moments, there wasn't a single sound. And then Wesley spoke.

"I believe Willow's right."

His words were met with surprise from most of the members of the room. He met their gazes calmly. "I have no desire to disrupt Buffy or Faith's rest. Lord knows they've earned it. However, there is reasonable evidence to suggest that Willow's ideas may be feasible. They are at least worth some investigation, before any other decisions are made."

Angel, Dawn, and Xander were nodding, along with Willow, whose head moved enthusiastically, "Yes. That's what I meant. Only I didn't say it nearly as well."

As one, the group turned to Giles, who still wasn't looking at them, though he could feel their stares hitting his back. Finally, after several seconds, he turned back, his eyes finding Willow's. "I'm sorry, Willow. I should not have gone off on you like that. I know, better than anyone, how much you have learned and how much that learning cost you."

Willow waved a hand, "No big, Giles. We're all...not at our best right now."

She sent him a weak smile and he met it with one of his own, then took a deep breath. "Very well. We investigate the site of the collapse as best as possible and see if we can determine exactly what happened to Buffy and Faith."

"And Spike," Dawn interrupted. Angel made a face and the others had varying expressions of 'why should we care' on their face, but Dawn's expression was firm. "Spike was down there too, and whatever you think of him, he was helping us out; he was on our side. We need to find him too."

A muscle in Giles' jaw twitched as he gritted his teeth and studied Dawn for a moment. Finally, he nodded, "Very well. And Spike." He turned to Angel, the mantle of watcher and leader completely back in place. "Any help you might be able to offer would be greatly appreciated."

Angel nodded, and sent Giles a wry grin, "As it turns out, I happen to have a multi-million dollar mystical law firm at my disposal. I'm sure we can put some people to work on this."

Giles nodded, "Good. In the interim, I shall return to the hotel and begin contacting any and all Watchers that may still be alive and available. We'll need to put a new Council together and see if we can't begin finding those who have newly been called."

Wesley spoke up, "I'm sure we can help with some of that as well."

Giles nodded, then sent a speculative look at Wesley, "I don't suppose you'd be interested in becoming a Watcher again?"

Wesley blinked in surprise and stuttered, "Well...I...uh," for a moment looking as he had many years before when he had first become acquainted with this group. He recovered quickly, however, "I don't believe that's a position I'm truly cut out for, though I will consider it."

Giles gave him another nod and stood, signaling that the meeting was drawing to a close. Angel spoke to him as they exited the room, "We'll get started on the investigation right away. I'll contact you the minute I know anything." He turned to Willow then, "Willow, we'll probably need some of your magical assistance as well."

Willow smiled at him, "Of course. I'll be here. Or well, not **here** here, but at the hotel here, anyway." She stopped herself from going completely into babble mode, though it was close. She couldn't help it, she was excited. There was a possibility, however small, that her friends weren't gone forever. She could have her best friend back after all.

As they reached the elevator, Giles sent them all a look. "I'd prefer if this didn't become common knowledge to the rest of the girls. If..." he took a deep breath and stiffened his shoulders, "if Buffy and Faith are g-gone, then I don't want all of their hopes brought up for nothing."

All of them nodded, agreeing with his train of thought, though Willow and Xander both thought, uncomfortably, that that plan hadn't worked real well for them when they'd raised Buffy from the dead two years ago.

With one last exchange of nods and handshakes, Giles, Willow, Xander, and Dawn entered the elevator. Their last sight was of Wesley and Angel, heads together, already in heavy discussion about their next step. It was a surprisingly comforting image to leave with.


	9. Daydream Believer

**Disclaimer**: Not mine. They belong to Whedon and Rowling and their respective production companies. I"m just having some fun and no profit is being made.

**Reviewer Responses**:

Zayra: Thanks so much for the review. I'll make sure to answer all your questions, but only in the story. Its no fun if I tell you what's gonna happen here, now is it? :) I've got big things planned for these characters.

Padfoot and Moony: As far as I'm concerned, the best compliment one can give a fanfiction writer is that the characters they are writing are actually in character and look like the people they watched or read. Thank you so much for that compliment! I hope I can continue to hold to that standard. Please let me know if I don't!

**Chapter Eight – Daydream Believer**

Harry thought, in a moment of perverse childishness, that one of the greatest perks of being joined to the Order that night was the look on Snape's face when they walked in the room. He looked as if he had just swallowed the vomit flavored Bernie Bott's Every Flavored Bean ". Harry just couldn't resist sending a smirk his way. Though he did feel a smidge of guilt when Hermione sent him a scolding look. He made a point after that to avoid looking at Snape as much as possible.

There were more people in the room than he had expected. Some more must've come in while they met in the kitchen. Dumbledore quickly called them to order. "I will begin this evening's meeting by introducing our newest members: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron and Ginny Weasley."

There was shocked silence at this, and the members present traded looks between Dumbledore and the four new additions.

"Albus, last time I checked, they're underage," a lady in the back, whom Harry recognized as Amelia Bones, spoke.

"Yes, Amelia, you are quite right. However, I believe, due to the circumstances, that an exception must be made. Seeing as Mr. Potter is one of Voldemort's main targets, it is only right that he have an idea of what is going on. And, since whatever Harry knows the other three will know...well, I decided that the exception would be made for all of them."

There was quiet for a few more moments, but the majority of the group seemed to accept Dumbledore's word as good enough for them.

"Now," Albus said, "I believe we have several things we need to discuss."

With that, the four teenagers were accepted and the meeting began. Dumbledore spoke of Hagrid's small, but hopeful, successes so far with the giants. It seems that Grawp had been of more use than any of them could have realized. Charlie Weasley delivered the unsettling news that several dragons had gone missing for the reservation he usually worked on. Harry was surprised to find out that the twins were developing several items to be used by Order members, though not as surprised as Ron and Ginny were, given the looks on their faces.

"They were working for the Order all this time!" Ron whispered furiously to Harry, "I can't believe they didn't tell us anything!"

There was some more general discussion over plans for the upcoming school year and ideas as to what Voldemort might have in mind. It was at this point that Snape cleared his throat and moved forward slightly.

"Yes, Severus," Dumbledore turned to him, "You have something to report?"

"We had several...requests...given to us at the last meeting. We've been given one week for all of us to bring in new faces to be joined to the group. We're to bring in two new recruits each. And, he has grown," here Snape's face tightened, and an expression Harry couldn't quite place slid over his face, "...impatient with my...inability to produce the Phasma Directus potion. He has informed me I have one week in which to produce the potion. Failure to do so will result in most...unpleasant consequences."

Dumbledore looked greatly worried at this news, "You still have no idea as to why he has become so interested in this potion?"

Snape shook his head, "None. Though...I think..." He trailed off, a look of concern and uncertainty on his face. It was one Harry had never seen on the man before, and he found the fact that it was there to be strangely unsettling.

"Severus?" Dumbldore prompted.

Snape shook himself slightly and turned to the Headmaster, "I have no proof, no evidence whatsoever. But...I believe that somehow the Dark Lord has already procured and used some of the potion previously."

The whole group took this news hard, it was obvious. Harry had no clue what the Phasma Directus was and could tell that his friends also were uncertain as to what all of this meant.

"And do you have any guesses as to where he may have gone?" Dumbledore asked Snape, his voice troubled.

Snape shook his head, "He spoke of bringing yours and Potter's worst nightmares to life and he mentioned the hounds of hell."

Harry was at just the right angle to see Dumbledore's face clearly. Snape's mention of the 'hounds of hell' meant something to him. It unsettled him, that much was clear. "I have to admit," Harry thought, "it doesn't leave me feeling very comfortable either."

For a moment there was quiet, as Dumbledore seemed lost in thought. Finally, he seemed to come out of his reverie and sighed. "Very well, Severus. You will have to make him the potion, then."

Moody spoke up at this point, "Are you sure that's the step you want to take, Albus? We don't know for sure what he's doing with this potion."

"No, Alastor, we do not. And because we do not is all the more reason why we need Severus where he is. If we decide not to make the potion, then Severus cannot return to Voldemort. As much as I would like to see Severus never go in front of him again, the information he brings us is invaluable. Therefore, I see little choice but to make the potion."

Moody didn't look any happier with this answer, but he didn't say anything else.

At this point, Hermione finally decided that she had had quite enough of having no clue what was going on, thank you very much.

"Excuse me, Professor, but what is the Phasma Directus potion exactly?"

Snape turned and snapped at her, "Hold your tongue, girl!"

Dumbledore spoke up then, "It is quite alright, Severus. They are members and, as such, have the right to be brought up to speed. The Phasma Directus is a potion that directs astral travel. It has not been in use in many centuries, once the spell for apparation was developed. Before that point, the Phasma Directus could be used to maintain contact between long distances. However, it has several unfortunate...side effects, the worst of which was the occasional loss of the astral spirit. And, a tendency for the astral self to slip into other dimensions."

Harry, Ron, and Ginny exchanged surprised and confused looks while Hermione sputtered, "Other dimensions?!"

Snape sneered and rolled his eyes at the girl, "Yes, Ms. Granger, other dimensions. Can it be we've finally stumbled across something you don't know?"

Hermione blushed and ducked her head.

"That will be quite enough, Severus," Dumbledore said mildly. Snape closed his mouth, but the sneer remained firmly in place.

"The existence of other dimensions is not a widely known fact, Ms. Granger, though it was more generally known and accepted in times past. It is not a surprise that you would find this information so astonishing, for, since the development of apparating, the practice of astral travel has fallen into disuse and knowledge of the Phasma Directus, and also of other dimensions, has been mostly forgotten."

Hermione nodded, taking all of this in. Harry was taking it in as well, along with watching Dumbledore closely. And he thought he had figured out what it was that had the Headmaster so worried.

"You think Voldemort's traveling to these other dimensions, don't you?"

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at Harry. "That is one possibility, yes. Highly unlikely, as I cannot imagine what can be gained by visiting these other places. But a possibility nonetheless. In any case," he turned back to Snape, "you will have to make the potion and get it to him. As always, keep your eyes open for any information as to what he is using it for."

Snape nodded. "There is one other thing, Headmaster. Voldemort has secured the support of the vampires."

If there had been tension in the room before, it was nothing compared to the level that existed in it now. The four teenagers exchanged looks of apprehension. Even they could see how bad this news was.

For a moment, Dumbledore looked each and every one of his years. He sighed, "That is not totally unexpected, but I had hoped they would continue their neutrality from the last war."

"Well, it's great to know Fudge's magical decrees for dark creatures have done so much good," Bill Weasley said, shaking his head in disgust.

"Indeed," said Dumbledore. "It is very likely that those decrees play a large part in their decision. We will need to begin development of strategies for fighting the vampires on large scales. Kingsley, perhaps you and Alastor could work on that?"

Shacklebolt and Moody both nodded their agreement.

Albus went on, "And, since we are speaking of Cornelius and his decrees, we will now speak of my news for the evening. I have spent the past several days at the Ministry in meetings with many of its members as well as meetings of the Wizengamot. It seems that quite a few people are concerned with the Minister's...handling...of the situation with Voldemort. Two days ago the Wizengamot called for a vote of no-confidence in the Minister."

There were exclamations all over the room, most of them running along the lines of, "It's about time."

Arthur Weasley nodded his head, "I've been hearing the rumblings that something of the sort might be coming over the past weeks. People aren't very happy with Fudge at the moment."

Fred and George Weasley had exchanged looks of satisfaction at the news and Fred spoke up, "Wonder how he'll like **his** trial?"

To which George responded, "Couldn't happen to a better fellow."

Dumbledore gave a small smile, "That may well be. However, Cornelius will not face trial. He tendered his resignation just a few hours ago."

Now, there was shocked silence, broken when Moody spoke up, "Bloody coward," which was a sentiment everyone seemed in agreement with.

Dumbledore's face remained solemn, "Perhaps. Regardless, this could cause quite a few problems. What is that muggle saying? Better the enemy you know? At this point, the position of Minister of Magic is up for grabs. We have to insure that it is someone on our side who claims it. Arthur, Amelia, I will need the two of you especially working on this. The Wizengamot will meet in the morning in order to consider those applicable for appointment as Minister. I need suggestions as to who would be ideal for that position, and I'm afraid I need them quickly."

These words seemed to galvanize the group into action. Arthur Weasley and Amelia Bones had already begun to discuss those names to offer for appointment as new Minister. Moody and Shacklebolt were also joining in on the conversation, along with discussing the situation with the vampires. Harry was strangely surprised at the cacophony of noise – it seemed rather unorganized.

Dumbledore seemed to agree, as he spoke up again, "Since there is much to be done, why don't we dismiss so that we can all get to work on our various parts? Arthur, Amelia, if the two of you wouldn't mind accompanying me back to the ministry, we will work on our candidates for Minister. The rest of you, you know your assignments. I don't believe I need to tell you how little time we have."

With that the group began to leave, each going about their own plans. Dumbledore moved over to where the four teenagers stood. "That concludes your first meeting of the Order. How does it compare to what you envisioned of it?" he asked amusedly.

Harry ignored the question, and the flash of anger that once again swelled in him at the man. Now wasn't the time. "What can we be doing, sir? I have no desire to sit here and stare at the walls."

Dumbledore nodded in understanding. "I can imagine not. I had already planned to begin some specialized training for you, Harry. I think we shall continue with that plan, and include Mr. and Miss Weasley and Miss Granger in it as well. That will begin the day after tomorrow. I believe Remus Lupin will be your first instructor. After that, several of the Aurors will be giving you lessons straight from Auror training. I believe the information and practice will be of great benefit to all of you."

Harry couldn't help but think it would've been a lot better if they'd started this special training quite a few years ago, but he was happy that it was to be started now. If it truly did come down to kill Voldemort or be killed, well...he'd like to at least have some chance of surviving the encounter.

"Along with the training, I wonder if you might check the Black library for information on the Phasma Directus and its effects and impacts? There are quite a few ancient and original texts here that I have not been able to go through as yet. Perhaps the four of you could do some research and report to me what you find." Hermione was practically salivating at this instruction and happily nodding her head. Ron didn't look quite as happy, but had matured enough to realize the importance of what Dumbledore was asking of them.

The four teens nodded, accepting the assignment given to them. Dumbledore gave them a small smile and a nod, as he moved off to where Arthur and Amelia were waiting for him. The other Order members had drifted off to their own assignments, already, Snape of course leaving the moment he was free to do so. Harry exchanged looks with his friends, and as one they all headed upstairs.

They all slipped into the room Harry and Ron shared and sat down on the beds. After a few moments of silence, Ginny finally spoke up, "Wow. I think I'm on information overload."

The others nodded their agreement. "Well, at least we finally know what's going on," Ron spoke up, "not that I understand it all."

Hermione looked concerned, "To think...other dimensions! I thought that was just science fiction."

Harry shook his head, "Obviously not. And I'll tell you this, there's more to the other dimension thing than Dumbledore was letting on. He's greatly concerned about it. Whatever Voldemort's doing with the Phasma Directus potion, Dumbledore is pretty worried that it has something to do with these other dimensions."

They all mulled over this for a few moments, before Hermione stood up. "Well, nothing more to be done with it tonight. We won't be starting the new training 'til the day after tomorrow, so that leaves us tomorrow to go through the Black library. I think I'll head to bed so that I can be well-rested for the research."

Ginny stood with her and they both walked to their room. Ron glanced over at Harry after the girls had left and shook his head, "Great. Studying during holidays. Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix, indeed."

Harry shared a smile of commiseration with Ron as they both got ready for and settled into bed.

As Harry lay there, waiting for sleep to come, he tried to push away the ever-present thoughts of Sirius. He wondered if his godfather would be glad that Harry had finally been included in the Order of the Phoenix. God, he missed Sirius. In the quiet of the night, with no more eyes upon him and no one else to hide from, as the rest of those in the house at Grimmauld Place slept, Harry let his tears fall and whispered, "I'm so sorry, Sirius. I'm so sorry." Finally, guilt heavy upon his soul, Harry slept...and dreamt.

__

_It was a desert. It was barren and hot, full of nothing but rocks and sand, at least so far that he could see. However, Harry doubted regular deserts had the feel to them that this one had. It was...wrong somehow. As if all the bad things in the world existed in this one place. Perhaps even came from this place. _

_He began moving slowly, walking in the direction of some large rocks in the distance. It seemed as good a direction as any, he supposed. _

_He was closing in on the rocks when he saw them, whatever they were. They were horrible to behold, giving him a sick feeling just to look at them for too long. They were put together wrong somehow, with all the pieces in the wrong places. Except for their mouths. Their mouths were where they should be. And what mouths they were too. Full of sharp-looking teeth, with slime dripping from the sides. He had no clue how they saw, though, as he couldn't find any eyes. They were altogether alarming, even without taking into account the serrated spikes that stuck out all over their bodies. Those were just icing on the cake._

_Harry had already begun to slowly back away when he realized the...demons, he supposed, didn't seem to notice him. They were focused on the group of rocks towards which he'd been headed. There were four of the creatures and they moved stealthily as they approached the large stones. Harry decided he should probably leave while they were still preoccupied with the rocks, when his thoughts were interrupted by a sudden yell from within the rocks and loud screeches from the monsters. He stopped, staring in shock as the demons leapt over into the section of rocks and sounds of fighting were heard. _

_Harry knew this was the best chance he had to get away and yet...something held him there, listening to the obvious sounds of a death match going on beyond his sight in the rocks. The screeches of the monsters caused chills to travel up and down his spine and made him want to curl up in a ball. _

_However, he got quite the shock when one of the monsters suddenly flew back over the rocks, landing on the ground with a sickening crunch. Another flew after it a moment later, though this one was back on its feet fairly quickly. _

_Even more astonishing than the creatures, however, was the dark-haired human woman who suddenly vaulted over the rocks, landing in front of the monsters, swearing colorfully the whole time._

"_That was my favorite jacket! Hell, that was my only damn jacket, you eyeless, piece of crap excuse for a demon!" _

_She launched herself at it and the demon immediately held out its spiked arms. Harry opened his mouth to shout out a warning, but just stood there with his jaw hanging open as the girl proceeded to dance around the creature, jabbing and punching and kicking as she moved. It was almost like an art form, watching her move. The two traded blows for a bit and Harry cried out in alarm when she took a nasty hit to the side. However she jumped back up, with only a slight grimace and threw herself back at him again. _

_Harry had had enough however. The shock of it all had held him in place for far too long, but seeing her hurt had been enough to pull him out of it. He began to move towards her, having no idea how he would help, but planning on doing so all the same. However, he'd moved no more than two steps when a blonde girl suddenly came around the rocks and yelled, "Faith!" _

_The brunette sidestepped a swipe by the demon, moved back out of range and looked over towards the blonde in time to catch the weapon that had been thrown her way. _

"_Thanks, B!" she yelled and turned back to the demon with a feral look on her face. "Now let's see just how tough you are, big and ugly."_

_She had been fairly fearsome before, but with the weapon, Harry thought it looked like a scythe, she was truly lethal. The demon didn't last much longer, although Harry couldn't for the life of him decide how she knew how to kill it. How did one cut off the head of something when one couldn't even find its head, after all?_

_He breathed a sigh of relief when the demon finally fell and looked back at the two girls, the blonde having now joined the brunette, Faith, he guessed her name was._

"_That was a little too close," the blonde spoke, toeing one of the demons almost daintily with one booted foot, then looking back at Faith. "You ok?"_

_The brunette looked down at the blood at her side and winced slightly, but nodded. "It's a scratch. Hurts like hell, but it'll heal. Had worse."_

_Suddenly there was a shout behind the rocks, "Hey! A little help here would be nice!"_

"_Damn!" Faith swore as she and the blonde rushed back around the rocks._

_Harry however was frozen to his spot. That voice...it had sounded like...but that wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible._

_The sounds of scuffling behind the rock suddenly cut off and Harry began walking towards where he'd seen the girls go. He had no bloody clue what was going on, but he was bound and determined to find out. _

_He hadn't gone far when the blonde appeared again, dragging the corpse of one of the demons behind her. Faith followed behind dragging another one. But it was the person behind them that grabbed Harry's complete and total attention. Because, walking behind the two girls, thin and dirty and looking even worse than he had after Azkaban, was his godfather._

"_Sirius," Harry breathed. It was a whisper, a prayer, and a plea, barely audible. And yet he suddenly had the attention of all three people. _

_Sirius' jaw dropped and he stared in shock, frozen. "Harry?" he said, in disbelief._

_Harry figured his expression likely matched Sirius' pretty well as he took in the figure of his godfather. "Sirius? Is it really you?"_

_He began moving towards the man and the man was matching his steps when he suddenly felt himself moving away, fading._

_Sirius moved forward quickly now, calling frantically, "Harry, wait! Harry, its me, don't go! Wait!"_

_Harry struggled against the force that pulled him backwards, reaching towards his godfather. "Sirius! No, please! Sirius! Siriusssssssssssss!"_

"HARRY!"

His eyes snapped open and he jerked upright in bed, flailing against the arms that were holding him.

"Sirius! No, I've got to get back to him! He was there! Damn it, let me go!" He shoved against the arms holding him.

"Harry please!" A female voice spoke to him, "Please Harry, you've got to calm down!"

That voice he recognized as Hermione and he suddenly stopped pushing long enough to try and get his bearings. As he relaxed, the arms holding him relaxed as well, and released him, moving away.

Harry blinked, trying to make the world focus around him, and only then realized that he didn't have his glasses on.

"Here, Harry." That was Ron and he pushed Harry's glasses into his hands.

Harry slid the glasses onto his face and looked up into the worried gazes of Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

"You all right, there, Harry?" Ron asked.

Harry shook his head, too shaken to even attempt to deny it.

Ginny sat next to him on the bed. "Was it a scar dream or a nightmare?"

Harry looked up at her and then at the other two, "It's Sirius. He's alive. And he's in danger."

They looked at him, eyes wide in astonishment as he recounted his dream.

There were several moments of silence as they took in what he told them.

Hermione was the first to speak, and from her tentative look and tone, Harry didn't figure he was going to much like what she said.

"Harry, is it possible this was just a dream?"

Harry was already shaking his head. "You don't get it Hermione. This isn't the first time I've had this dream." He waved his hand, "It's not exactly the same, but it's always in the same place, this barren desert land. They're not always as clear as this one was, but I know it's the same. And why would I dream up those two girls? I've never seen them before! What's the possibility that I'd just come up with two complete strangers helping Sirius out in my dream?"

Hermione didn't look convinced and it was obvious that all of them thought he was just a bit mental.

Harry bit back the anger that filled him and took a deep breath. "Look, I know how this sounds, alright? But I am **not** crazy and it was **not** just a dream. The fact of the matter is, we don't know anything about the veil! And, from the little the others would say about it, they're not all that sure what it is or how it works either. There is the possibility that Sirius got stuck somewhere else."

His friends still looked doubtful, but Hermione's expression had gone thoughtful, so she at least was considering his words.

He sighed then and sent them all a pleading look, "How about this – I'll admit the possibility that I could be wrong. It could all just be...a dream and Sirius could be really...gone. IF you guys admit that I could be right and Sirius could be trapped in another place. Help me check it out at least. Please."

Ginny and Ron were already nodding their agreement to help before he'd finished speaking. They all then turned to Hermione. She looked at Harry searchingly for a moment then sighed, "All right, Harry. We will investigate the veil and see what we can figure out." She reached over to a nearby desk and pulled out a quill and parchment. "I'll need you to write down every detail of your dream that you can remember – everything. We'll research this along with the Phasma Directus. If there's a chance Sirius is...alive, then we'll find him and we'll get him back."

"Thank you, Hermione," Harry said, relieved beyond what he could express. If anyone could put all these things together and come up with the right answer, it was Hermione. He honestly didn't think he could bear it if she wasn't helping him. He smiled at her as he accepted the quill and parchment and she returned the smile, without reservation. He felt the lift of a load from his shoulders at that moment. With his friends behind him, they would get to the bottom of this. And, if his dreams were true and Sirius was alive, they **would** get him back.


	10. What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas

**Disclaimer - **By this point, you know the drill. Not mine, no money.

**Reviewer Responses **-

Padfoot and Moony - I am so glad that you like it and that I am achieving some suspense here. I'm really going for anticipation. I want to make people really wonder about what's going to happen next. Its good to know I'm actually managing that to some extent! Thanks so much for the review, I'm not sure what I would do with you!

SiriusEarendil - No problem about the reviews; sometimes its hard to review every chapter of a story. I greatly appreciated the reviews you do give! Thank you so much for your compliments. The last chapter is one of my favorites, so far, and I'm glad other people like it too!

WhiteWolf3 - Well, that is a conclusion that Harry has drawn. As to what Voldemort has planned, well...we'll have to wait and see, won't we! ;)

Thank you all, I can't tell you how nice it is to get reviews. It really make writing all the more fun. Thanks go out especially to Arie, beta reader extrodinaire. The story wouldn't be what it is without her help!

**Chapter Nine – What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas**

For a moment, after Harry's disappearance, no one moved or spoke. Then Sirius spun around to look at the two women behind him.

"Ok, you both saw him too, right?" His voice was steady, but his eyes pled for affirmation. This, after all, wasn't the first time he had seen his godson in this godforsaken place. His captors had taken great pleasure in tricking him with images of his godson come to rescue him. Or worse, his godson being killed before his eyes. He couldn't be sure that this current apparition wasn't someone still attempting to mess with his mind.

Buffy sent him a reassuring smile and a nod as Faith spoke up, "Not to worry, Sear, you're no more crazy than you usually are. We all saw your boy."

Sirius' breath escaped his lungs in an explosive gasp at her words. "He was really here, then."

Buffy shrugged slightly, "Looks like, at least. Though, we probably should be careful not to jump to conclusions. I mean, how was he here? How'd he get here? Why'd he just disappear when you spoke to him? Where'd he go? These are all questions we need answers to."

Faith and Sirius nodded, Sirius attempting to reign back in the excitement that came with the thought that he had just seen his godson again. He looked at Buffy, who, despite her younger age had become their de facto leader, and asked, "So, how do we go about answering those questions?"

She pursed her lips as she thought, then shook her head. "I still think we go with the original plan. There's nothing we can find out standing around here. We need to go somewhere we can get answers. We need to find the place they're taking all the metal to. I have a hunch we'll find answers to a lot of our questions there."

Sirius looked worried, "But, what if it's something about **this** place that allowed Harry to contact us? I mean, what if we need to be here to see him again?"

This time it was Faith who answered, "That's a lot of 'what ifs,' Black. Fact of the matter is we want to get out of this hellhole, not just have a conversation with your godson. Seems to me the best plan is still to get back to your world. The kid looked as surprised to see you as you were to see him, which makes me think he didn't plan to come here. That tells me its up to us to get ourselves out of here. Which, ain't gonna happen if we're standing here waiting for something that might not happen again."

Buffy added, "And there's still the fact that, though we all saw him, it could've been some kind of trick meant to keep us here, instead of looking for answers." She shook her head, "That's just too many variables, Sirius. You know it is."

He sighed then, agitatedly running his hands through his hair. "You're right. I know you're right. Its just..." he looked up at them, his eyes bright with tears he would never let fall. "Its just I've let him down so many times now. I don't want to fail him again."

Buffy moved forward a few steps and put a hand on his arm, "You're not going to fail him, Sirius," she said firmly, "We're going to find a way out of this place and we're going to find a way to get you back to your godson."

He looked at her for a moment, then nodded and took a deep breath. "Right. Well then, let's keep moving, shall we? I have a godson who's waiting on me."

Buffy nodded, sending him a small smile, and turned to pick up the scythe and remove her dagger from one of the dead demons. Faith and Sirius also gathered up their things and they once again set off in a westward direction.

They had been walking for what seemed like forever when they first caught sight of it. Faith wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but it wasn't a city. A city that looked, for all intents and purposes, like Las Vegas. Big neon signs, bright lights, (although she couldn't for the life of her figure out what the bright lights were for, considering it never got dark around here), there was even a big pyramid at one end. She couldn't help but snicker at bit at the sight of it. When Buffy looked at her, she shook her head, "I've heard it called Sin City before, but..." she waved her hand at the city they were fast approaching, "really, I had no idea."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, looked at the city, looked back at Faith and then grinned as well.

Sirius looked at both of them, "You know this place?"

It was Buffy who answered, "Looks like the city of Las Vegas from our world. Big place of gambling and boozing. And, oddly enough, quickie marriages. It's sometimes called Sin City."

Sirius raised his eyebrows at that and looked back at the city. "It can't be the same city."

Faith shook her head, "No, I've been to Vegas and there are definitely some differences. But, the resemblance is there." She turned back to Buffy, "So, how do we wanna play this?"

Buffy sighed and shook her head, studying the city. "I'm really opposed to the John Wayne approach. We don't have any clue how many demons we're up against over there."

Sirius looked confused, "John Wayne approach?"

Buffy smiled, "You know, charging in, guns blazing hoping we'll hit something but with no real plan involved?"

Sirius nodded, "Ah. Yes." What old Snivellus would've called Gryiffindor foolishness. Sirius would've argued with Snape on that point, of course, but even he had come to realize that simply charging in wasn't always the best of ideas. He had only to think about how he'd ended up in this hellhole in the first place for proof.

Faith sent them a grin, "You ask me, it's the only way to fly."

Buffy rolled her eyes, "You would say that."

Sirius sighed, "So, no John Wayne then. What's our plan?"

The three discussed various options and finally decided that they'd make their way around to the side. The mountains and rocks would help conceal their approach and, from what they could see, there appeared to be an alley of sorts they could slip into from the side. They hoped they'd be able to find some cloaks or some other form of disguise that would help them move about in the city unnoticed.

Faith agreed with the plan, but as they slowly and carefully made their way around to the side alley she commented quietly to Buffy, "You do remember our history with plans, right? You know, their tendency to blow right the hell up in our faces?"

Buffy sent the other Slayer a glare, but then ruefully nodded. "Maybe this one will go better," she answered hopefully.

Faith sent her own look Buffy's way, to which the blonde girl responded with a shrug and moved out after Sirius. Faith shook her head and sighed, as she moved after her companions. "Better. Right."

They reached the alley without incident and, after checking that it was empty, begin to carefully make their way into the city itself. The city was extremely quiet. Too quiet really, and it made Buffy wonder if their presence had already been detected. "Positive thoughts, Buffy," she thought to herself, "Maybe their asleep. Every single one of them."

Sirius turned to them then, speaking in a barely audible whisper, "Anyone else feel like it is far too quiet around here?"

Both girls nodded, and the three travelers exchanged worried looks.

Faith spoke up, her voice matching Sirius'. "The John Wayne approach is looking better and better."

Buffy shook her head, "No. We still don't know what's up here. We keep quiet and keep with the plan for now." She looked at the two doors that offered them entrance into the buildings on either side of the alley. "Maybe we should slip into one of these buildings, see if we can't find some disguises."

Faith and Sirius looked at each other then shrugged. Seemed as good an idea as any and there certainly weren't any handy disguises lying around in the alleyway.

Faith eyed the two doors. "So, left or right?"

Buffy looked between the two doors, suddenly thinking that X-ray vision would come in really handy, then sighed. "Truthfully, it just doesn't matter. There's a 50-50 chance of death and destruction either way."

She looked at Faith, who shrugged, and then at Sirius, who looked back and forth between the doors, before finally looking back at her.

"Right," he said.

Buffy looked at him, "Any particular reason why?"

He shrugged and shook his head, "No. Just figure it's as good a choice as the other."

Buffy gave him a half-grin as she moved to the door. "You do realize, of course, that if the bad guys are on the other side of this door, you will never hear the end of it."

He snorted, "If I'm wrong, then by all means, feel free to tease me unmercifully for the rest of our incredibly short lives."

She made a face and gave him a nod, conceding his point, then turned toward the door. "Well, here goes nothing," she said, as she gave the knob a quick twist to break the lock and pushed the door open.

Fate must have decided they deserved a break, because the room was empty. They moved inside it quickly, both Buffy and Faith attempting to extend their Slayer senses in hopes of knowing if the building was occupied. As far as they could tell, there wasn't anyone nearby, though neither of them overly trusted that assessment.

The room they had stepped into was large and fairly dark. There was a dim light that Buffy figured came from windows somewhere, though she couldn't see them. As they began to move carefully further into the building, Buffy began to feel a sense of darkness, of wrongness. She kept checking around regularly, hoping that it was her imagination making her senses go haywire. She couldn't see anything, nor could she get an accurate sense of anything nearby, and yet...she felt like they were being watched.

She saw Sirius twitch slightly beside her and sent a glance his way. His face was set and the fear was practically radiating off of him. She touched his arm slightly and he looked at her with wide eyes. "There's something here. We are not alone."

He could not describe to her what he felt; she had never been in the presence of a Dementor before. But, if someone were to gather a hundred Dementors into one room, Dementors who were full and happy on hundreds of good memories they had soured, they might get a small glimpse of what he felt making his way through the dark room. He didn't see anything, couldn't place where anything could come from, but he knew, without doubt, that something was there all the same.

"Uh, guys." The alarm in Faith's voice shook him out of thoughts. He could see her ahead in the gloom, standing still and looking up at the ceiling. Confused, he and Buffy looked up as well, trying to see what had the normally fearless girl sounding so shook up.

For a moment, looking at the ceiling, Buffy couldn't figure out exactly what she was seeing. Straight above her she could make out some silver shape, but no real distinction as to what it was. She moved ahead to Faith's side to get a better look at what had startled her sister slayer so. As soon as she had, however, she fervently wished she hadn't.

Faith had stopped closer to where one of the highly placed windows let some light filter down into the building. The light landed at just the right angle to show Buffy what the silver things hanging above them were: silver hooks, much like what one would find beef hanging on in a butcher's shop. That wasn't the startling part, however. On one of the hooks, hanging upside down just like a side of beef, was a human. The blood still dripped from the body onto the floor.

Buffy heard Sirius' gasp and curse as he moved up beside her and saw the body as well. She could feel the stiff way that Faith held herself and knew that she felt every bit as sick as Buffy did right now. She wanted, more than anything to look away, to run screaming, but she found herself frozen to the spot.

"What the hell is this place?"

"This is the place we put those who dare to interfere with our plans, Slayer. Soon to be your new home." The gruff voice spoke from the shadows and Buffy was positive that she had no desire to see its owner. But all their luck had played out, because the lights suddenly flipped on.

Faith, Buffy, and Sirius looked around to find themselves surrounded by at least fifty demons of various species and shapes. More alarming then their differences, however, was their similarities, as each of them was huge, with plenty of claws and teeth to go around.

One demon stepped out from the rest. Buffy assumed this was the one who had spoken earlier. He looked much like an alligator, if alligators decided to up and walk on their hind legs. He was at least 7 feet tall, with a long snout full of sharp teeth. Teeth that were at this moment very visible as he smiled at them. Buffy swallowed and tightened her grip on her scythe. She could feel Faith moving into a defensive position next to her. There was no way in hell they could beat them all; their chances were nil, but they would go out fighting.

"Welcome, all of you," the beast's smile seemed to get wider as he looked down at them and raised a hand, "to the end of your life." The hand came down and the demons charged.

(evil grin) - I do remember mentioning my love for cliffhangers. ;)


	11. In the Tongues of Snakes and Demons

**Disclaimer**: As usual, owned by Rowling and Whedon and, sadly, not by me.

**Author's Notes**: Forgive me for the lateness of this chapter. My life has been, to quote Xander, one big crazy whirligig of fun lately. And that's in the sarcastic sense. Its funny how some days the story just seems to rush out of me with almost no effort on my part and then on other days, its like pulling teeth to write two paragraphs. I definitely feel sympathy for Rowling!

Reviewer Responses at the bottom.

**Chapter Ten – In the tongues of snakes and demons**

Harry hadn't said anything to the others, but when Dumbledore had given them the assignment to look through the Black library for information on the Phasma Directus potion, Harry had believed it was simply busy work; something simple and easy to keep them occupied. "Come on," he'd scoffed to himself, as he had made his way with the others back upstairs after the Order meeting, "As if there's any way he hasn't already searched that library from top to bottom." It was only his attempt to keep a handle on his temper and be treated as one of the "grown ups" that had kept him from calling the Old Man on it.

He'd continued to believe it was a bogus assignment, right up until the morning came and he and the others walked into the library. The room was dark, with the heavy curtains pulled across the window and the only light coming from the doorway. However, Harry could tell the room was huge. Ok, the Hogwarts library was larger, by far, but for a personal home library, it was truly enormous. The size of the room wasn't what caused Harry to change his mind about the truth behind their assignment, however. That came from the fact that the room, what they could see of it in the darkness, was trashed. There were far more books lying on the floor and on tables and chairs than there were on the shelves.

Since the restrictions on underage magic forbade them from performing magic, they'd had to retreat back out and try to find some lights. After quite a bit of arguing with Mrs. Weasley about the need for them to enter the library, which Hermione had finally ended by politely and firmly reminding the woman that this was their assignment for the Order, they finally managed to wrest some candles from her and head back into the cavernous room.

The light from the candles just made the mess of the room worse. They'd had to pick their way carefully across the room and each of them had had to stand at different points in the room, as there was nowhere big enough for all of them to stand together. Hermione, muttering to herself about "wretched treatment of books," made her way over to the curtains and worked to open them in order to let a little more light in the room. She was lucky, really, as there were no creatures hanging about in the curtains as there had been in other rooms they'd worked in. It seemed even the myriad of beings that had invaded the other parts of the house, which they'd spent most of their summer clearing out had avoided this room.

When the curtains were finally opened, Hermione turned back to the group, and for a few moments there was silence as each of them took in the mess that they would have to go through.

"Bloody hell! What a mess!" Ron spoke up, breaking the silence.

Hermione briefly considered admonishing him for swearing but decided it really fit the situation. She felt like using a few choice words herself.

Harry was shaking his head his disbelief. He wasn't even sure where to begin. "How the hell does Dumbledore expect us to find anything in this room? It'll take us the entire month we have left before school starts just to put it back in order!"

From the way Ginny's jaw was set, she agreed. Hermione sighed, "So, it will take longer than we thought. But, there are four of us and we have plenty of reason to get it done quickly." With that, Hermione did what she did best. She organized them into action. She set each of them to work on a section, giving suggestions on the best way to set up what they were doing and reminding them to keep an eye out for books that might contain information on either the Phasma Directus ("Hmm, either astral travel or other dimensions, I should think") or on the Veil ("I'm not even sure what **that** would be under. Mysterious deaths, travels beyond the worlds? Just keep an eye out"). Ron and Harry couldn't help exchanging grins over Hermione. The girl was certainly in her element. Then all of them set to work with a dedication and fervor that would have surprised most of their teachers. Well, except Hermione's of course; this was how hard she always worked.

Four hours, seven bit fingers, and numerous blood-curdling screams later, they had actually made a dent on the mess.

"It's a small one," Ginny said, "But it is a dent."

They had actually managed to clear out one whole section, putting the books in order as they went, as Hermione had insisted they'd only get confused as to what they had already looked through later. Any book that looked as if it might in any way have information on either Phasmus Directus or the Veil was set on a nearby cleared off table to be gone through later.

"Well, I for one need a break," Ron spoke up. "And some food. I'm bloody starved!"

"Ron!" Hermione said, sending an admonishing glare his way but then sighing. "You are right, though. We could use a break and it is lunch time. Perhaps after we eat we can come back and begin looking through some of these books; see if we can't get some research done."

The others were agreeable to this plan and began to make their way out of the room. Harry was at the back and decided to stick his candle in a nearby candle holder, as it wasn't really needed anymore. As he sat the candle in the holder, however he felt an indention on the bottom of the holder. Bending down to look at it, he found a small snake, much like the one on the sink in Myrtle's bathroom, engraved in the silver at the bottom of the holder.

Harry immediately looked for his friends, but they had already left the room. He knew he should go and get them, but then, he didn't even know if he had found anything yet.

Taking a deep breath, he decided to try using his skills as a Parselmouth first, see if it did anything. If not, then he wouldn't feel silly for having called his friends back for nothing. He let out the breath and with it came the hissing sounds of Parseltounge.

He truly wasn't surprised when the bookcase to the right of the holder slid open, like a scene from an old Muggle movie he'd managed a glimpse of once a long while ago.

Once again he paused, thinking he should really call for his friends. "But, you still haven't really found anything," a voice inside him reasoned. "Why call them in here just to find an old, probably empty passage way?"

It was odd, really. For a moment he stood in the doorway of the passage, greatly conflicted, two sides of his mind arguing with each other as to whether he should call his friends or simply check it out himself. The voice that cautioned him to contact his friends sounded strangely like Dumbledore, which in the end is what decided him. "Look what listening to him has gotten me so far," Harry thought bitterly. "One missing or possibly dead godfather."

With that thought he moved into the passageway, taking the candle he had placed in the holder with him.

It wasn't a very long passage way. Only a few meters really, and then it ended in a dark room. "Damn, what I wouldn't give to be able to do a "Lumos" right..." he trailed off because, as he said the word for the spell of lighting, the room suddenly lit up, all the candles along the wall suddenly lighting on their own.

"Wow," Harry said, looking surprised.

The room wasn't large, really, though it did have two stories, the upper story being more a loft. The loft was filled with books and Harry immediately thought he would have to get Hermione in here. He'd be willing to bet all the galleons in Gringotts that any books they needed would be up there. Again that reasonable voice spoke up, telling him to go and get her now, but he was too curious to even acknowledge it.

The lower section of the room was set up much like an office, with a desk and chair and even what looked like a file cabinet. The wall behind the desk ended the office motif, as it was covered with gruesome paintings of death and destruction. The theme, as it were, seemed to be wizards killing Muggles, which again, did not take Harry by surprise. He remembered how Sirius had told him his parents were big Voldemort supporters, although Sirius had said they weren't actually Death Eaters.

This did confuse Harry though, because, as far as he knew, he and Voldemort were the only Parselmouths around. And since the Blacks certainly hadn't set up this secret passageway for him, it had to have been done for Voldemort. Although Sirius had left home at sixteen, it was likely his whole family could've joined as Death Eaters when Regulus had, and Sirius wouldn't have known it. "Not like they would've kept the 'blood traitor' informed," Harry thought, then shook his head. He could figure all the specifics of the room out later; he was going to look around now.

He went to the desk first and began rifling through it. In the bottom drawer was a strange box. There was no lock and it seemed as if it should open, but he could not find a place where it could be opened. However, the serpent etched into the top of the box gave him a clue, so he sat it on the desk and once again he issued the command to open in Parseltongue. The box shimmered slightly and suddenly popped open. Nestled inside was a ring attached to a chain. The ring was small, more than likely a female's ring, with the letter R done it calligraphy on the top of a green stone and a snake was engraved around the R. It was a fairly pretty ring, though it didn't seem to have any magic to it. Harry had to wonder what it was doing locked away as it was, in a place that had obviously been a hideout of Voldemort's. It seemed strangely sentimental for the Voldemort he knew.

"Although, he was a man named Riddle once," Harry thought to himself.

The ring touched him, somehow, although he couldn't really figure out why. It seemed to make him realize that Voldemort had once been a human man, even an adolescent, as Harry himself was. He'd had thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams. He'd been raised by Muggles who likely didn't treat him very well. Not for the first time, Harry found himself chilled by the knowledge that he and Tom Riddle were alike in quite a few ways.

Almost without thought, Harry took the ring and slid the chain it was attached to over his head. The ring settled against his skin and he briefly wondered why he was keeping something that belonged to such an evil person. That didn't stop him from settling the ring underneath his shirt, hidden away from casual sight. He couldn't explain to himself why he was keeping it; he certainly didn't want to try to explain it to others.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he continued to search through the desk, then the filing cabinet. In the cabinet, he found some old scrolls, written in a language he could not understand. There were some notes scrawled on the margin, however, and it was these that caught his attention. The handwriting was hard to read, but one of the notes said something about the Veil.

"Yes!" Harry said, startling himself as he spoke out loud. Finally, here was some information that might help Sirius. "Ironic, really," Harry thought, "that the information to help Sirius would be found in a secret room used by an evil man in a house he hated."

Suddenly, he could hear the sounds of the others calling for him. They sounded worried and instantly he felt contrite for not going to get them. Of course they'd be worried if he just suddenly disappeared. Carrying the scrolls, he quickly made his way back to the hidden door to the library and hissed at the door to open again.

Ginny, who was standing closest to the secret door, jumped as Harry emerged, saying, "Merlin, Harry! You scared the life out of me!" A look of curiosity came over her face as she took in the open door to the secret passage, and then she shook her head and grinned at the dark-haired boy. "No secret places are sacred from you, are they?"

He grinned back at her and shrugged slightly, and then called out for Ron and Hermione, who were still looking for him. A few moments later, and the group of four were making their way back down the secret passage and into the secret room.

Hermione lectured Harry for a few moments about entering the place alone, but was soon too interested in the scrolls he had found and the books in the loft to worry too much that he had entered alone. Ginny joined her in the loft, carefully checking out some of the books as well.

Ron stayed on the lower level with Harry, a look of disgust on his face at the pictures on the wall. "The Blacks were a disgusting lot, weren't they Harry? It's amazing Sirius turned out like he did, coming from them."

Harry nodded, "That's true enough, although I don't think this room was for the Blacks."

Ron looked at Harry in confusion, and even Hermione and Ginny stepped to the railing of the loft to listen to him.

"What do you mean, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Well, in order to open the door to this room, you have to be a Parselmouth. Do any of you know of any other Parselmouths besides me and Voldemort?" Harry asked.

All heads were shaking at this and Hermione spoke up, "I researched it back in second year, Harry, when we found out you were one. Voldemort was the first one in several centuries. It is a very rare trait. It is believed that Salazar Slytherin created the ability using dark magic, though that is mostly legend."

Harry nodded, "Exactly. So that means that, other than me, Voldemort is the only person who could've opened that door. So, this room had to be his to use."

The others looked shocked at this knowledge and Ron shook his head. "But Harry, Sirius said that his family were not Death Eaters, except for that one brother. Why would Voldemort have a room here?"

Harry shrugged, "Well, Sirius was a blood traitor to them, remember? They wouldn't have told him if they decided to join. And, if they had joined, they would've been too scared to back out after Regulus was killed." Another thought occurred to him then. "Although, maybe they didn't have to join at all. It would've made this the perfect hiding place since no one thought the Blacks were Death Eaters. No one would think to look for Voldemort here."

Ginny suddenly looked worried. "But that would mean that V-Voldemort and the Death Eaters do know about this place!"

Hermione shook her head, "It wouldn't matter even if they did. Dumbledore put it under the Fidelus Charm. Even if they knew exactly where it was supposed to be, they couldn't find it and wouldn't be able to get into it unless Dumbledore himself told them were it is. Which of course, would never happen."

Ginny looked thoughtful at that. "It must be driving him crazy then, if you think about it. He can't get back here to get this stuff. And yet, if he's smart," here an incredibly dark look crossed her face, then she continued, "and I know he is, he'll know this is where the Order headquartered. But there isn't a thing he can do about it. And not only is his worst enemy harbored here, but another Parselmouth as well," she finished, waving a hand toward Harry.

Ron looked satisfied at that. "Hope the thought keeps him up nights," the red-head said.

Harry nodded, sending a grin at Ron, "I imagine it doesn't make him happy."

Hermione, who had gone back to look at several more books, spoke up again. "I don't think this was just a hideout though. All these books up here...it's not just a library of the Dark Arts. Most of them, well they're in languages I don't know well, but what I can read," she looked up at them, her face somewhat pale, "they're all about demons."

Ginny raised an eyebrow, "Demons? Like as opposed to angels, demons?"

Hermione nodded, "Something like that." She pointed at the book she'd been going through. "Like this one talks about different demons that are known as the lords of hell. I can't understand all of it, some of the wording is simply archaic, but it seems to be describing ways to contact these demons."

Ron and Ginny looked extremely worried at this news and Harry's stomach rolled as if he were sick.

Ron spoke up, "I thought demons were just stories, myths made up by Muggles who happened across a magical creature?"

Hermione shrugged, "So did I, but then I also thought magic wasn't real until I realized I was a witch. These books seem to believe they are very real and they can be contacted."

Harry exclaimed, "Hermione! In my dream last night, the creatures that attacked Sirius and the two women with they have been demons?"

Hermione looked surprised, but considered the idea, for which Harry was extremely grateful. "I don't know, Harry, it's possible. Though that would mean..." she trailed off, if anything suddenly looking more worried than she had before. "If your dream was real and those were demons..." she stopped again, seeming to have trouble even getting the words out of her mouth.

"What, Hermione? Spit it out!" Ron said, not liking the fearful look currently in residence on her face.

"Well," she said, and took a deep breath, "if Harry's dream were real and those were demons, and we've got all these books talking about different demons and how to contact them, then...what's the chance that **that** is what Voldemort is up to? Contacting demons?"

The others seemed totally blown away by this thought, even Harry who had considered the fact that Voldemort might be traveling to other dimensions before. But this, this news was bad. Way bad.

"Bloody hell." Ron breathed, his face pale. This time, Hermione didn't even think to try to correct him. This was just too big.

"Wait, wait," Ginny said, her face as pale as the others, but her voice reasonable. "We shouldn't just jump to conclusions about this. I mean, Voldemort hasn't been in this room in at least 15 years. So, while this is obviously something he was looking into back then, it doesn't necessarily mean it's something he's looking into now. Maybe he investigated it and realized it wouldn't work. We probably shouldn't get all worked up about this without at least looking into it further."

The others nodded, Hermione and Ron looking far more relieved.

"You're right, of course, Ginny. We need to do more research before we make any decisions. I'll have to see if I can't find some translation texts in the main part of the library so I can study these books in more detail. For now though, we really should go and have some lunch. I think we could all use the break and I, for one, would greatly like to get out of this room." Hermione gave a slight shudder as she said this, climbing down from the loft and already heading for the door.

Harry couldn't help but think about how much their thoughts must have upset Hermione if she were willing to leave a library and research undone to go eat. He agreed that they needed a break though.

He was the last one out of the room, and before stepping back into the passageway he glanced back at the room, his thoughts dark and worried. Regardless of how little investigating they'd done, he was pretty sure that Hermione's hypothesis was right on. Somehow, Voldemort had found a way to contact the demons, these lords of hell. And, if that were true, how in the **hell** was he supposed to be able to stop him? What power did a sixteen year old boy have against the power of hell itself?

Ron's voice interrupted the frightening thoughts, "Oy! Harry! Would you come and let us out of this place already?"

Harry shook his head and with one last glance around the room, hurried to join the others.

* * *

Look ma, no cliffhanger! :)

First of all, thanks as always to my beta Arie!

Faith's Lies: No, no kicking of the computer. I'll have to start putting in a disclaimer that the author will not be responsible for damaged computers due to the cliffhangers found in the story. :) Thanks for the review, hope the chapter was worth the wait.

SiriusEarendil: Well, I hope this chapter breathes life into you again! ;) Thanks for sticking with me!

Sterling-Ag: Thank you so much for taking time and reviewing! I hope I can continue to please!

Goddessa39: Thank you so much for your review! I greatly appreciate it! I also like B/A, but Angel will have only a small part in this story and he will not be paired with Buffy. At this point, I'm not sure there will even be any pairings (though I'm not discounting them). My story's really more action/adventure than romance. Though, one can never say exactly what will happen, my muse doesn't often let me know in advance! Hope you'll stick with me, even though B/A is not likely.

Padfoot and Moony: No problem being anonymous, I was the same way until I started writing. And thank you again for your reviews! Continuing reviewers give me all sorts of happy feelings! :)

WhiteWolf3: Thanks for reviewing! Yes, they might could've handled 50 demons. I'm sort of pulling a Joss with this. Y'know how, in one episode Buffy takes on 10 vamps by herself with no problems and then in the next she's doing her best to take down one? :) But, not only were they in an enclosed space, but they were also trying to protect Sirius, who has no wand and, as much as I love him, is not a Slayer. Makes it a little harder. Its a little plot contrivance, but hopefully not too big to make you stay away. I like the reviews! ;)

Thank you all, I love the reviews. I love to write and will continue, no matter how many reviews I do or don't get. But, getting reviews does add to the fun, I will admit! :)


	12. Enemies and Old Friends

**Disclaimer**: I only wish I owned these characters, cause then I'd be very rich. Alas, they are not mine, but belong to Whedon and Rowling.

**Author's Notes**: We have reached the end of the chapters I already had written before I started posting. I've been having a lot, and I do mean A LOT of trouble with chapter twelve. I will try very much to keep up with the once a week posting, but some of the chapters might be later. Hey, quality takes time, right? ;)

**Chapter Eleven – Enemies and Old Friends**

The fight was brutal and seemed pretty hopeless. Sirius had gone down first, not surprisingly. Even on his best day, he wasn't a Slayer. Against fifty big, powerful demons, without even a wand to help him, while weakened by torture, malnourished, and exhausted? Well, it really wasn't much of a contest. He'd done well, really, all things considered. He'd taken down two on his own, using a dagger and his fists. Then taken down another three with some kind of wandless magic. Unfortunately, that had seemed to drain the last bit of strength right out of him. He'd taken a hit not long after and gone down. Buffy hadn't seen him get back up and she had no way of knowing whether he was simply unconscious or if it were something much worse.

She and Faith were still fighting. They were Slayers and Slayers didn't just lie down and die. There were already at least twenty corpses surrounding them. Add to that Sirius' five and they'd cut down about half of the group. If the demons thought the group would be an easy kill, well, they'd been not so pleasantly surprised.

But there were just too damn many of them. More even than the two of them, the best Slayers their world had ever seen, could handle alone. With a little more time and more space to maneuver, Buffy might've been able to come up with a plan of some kind, but as it was, it was all she could do to stay on her feet. She was bruised and had several cuts that were bleeding freely and Faith was in even worse shape than she was. The blonde knew her sister Slayer would not be standing much longer.

On the heels of that thought, she heard Faith cry out in pain, and the dark haired girl suddenly went down on one knee. "Faith!" Buffy yelled, struggling with the group surrounding her, trying to get to Faith's side. She threw her leg out in a side-kick, knocking the closest demon back, and swung the scythe in a large half-circle, pushing them back from her a bit. Even as she moved though, she knew she wouldn't make it in time.

Time itself seemed to slow down to a crawl as she saw a demon pull back his sword. She had time to yell "NO" before the demon thrust the sword forward and...knocked Faith unconscious with the hilt of the weapon?

Buffy blinked in surprise. "What the hell...?" she thought confusedly.

That moment of confusion cost her. In that small instant of inattention one of the demons got a good hit in and she was sent sprawling to the floor. She had time for the thought, "Why don't they just kill us" to cross her mind before she joined Faith, and hopefully Sirius, in unconsciousness.

----------

Buffy had no idea how long she was out. When she came to, it was to find herself chained to a wall, her weapons on a group of boxes across the room. She surmised that she couldn't have been unconscious very long, because several of the demons were still clearing the carcasses out.

Turning her head carefully, as it was still throbbing from the knock she had taken, she spied Faith, still unconscious, chained a little ways down from her. Faith was bleeding pretty heavily and Buffy couldn't help the flash of worry that went through her at the sight of the girl. It was silly, really, as the chance of them getting out of here wasn't any greater than it had been when she thought they were dead earlier. Now, they just had more chance of being tortured before they died, which Buffy didn't find pleasing at all.

However, as long as they were all alive, there was a chance, however slim, that their fates could change. Buffy couldn't help but hold on to that. At this moment, it was all she had. And, she wasn't leaving here without Faith. She and Faith might share a long and sordid history, but she was still her sister, in many ways. And they had been building a new relationship through all the fighting the First. "Besides," she thought to herself, "the only person that gets to kill Faith is me."

She sighed lightly, looked past the dark haired girl and, to her great relief, met Sirius' eyes. He was awake, though he looked fairly groggy. He was aware enough, however, to raise an eyebrow at her and mouth, "Is this where you say this is all my fault?"

She couldn't help but grin at that, glad beyond belief that the wizard was alive. That action drew the attention of the chief demon, the alligator looking one. She watched as he walked over, looked at her for a moment, grinned maliciously, then moved over to Sirius and cuffed him across the face.

"Something funny, human?" the demon asked.

Sirius moved his head back, and she could see the blood dripping from his mouth.

"Yeah," the human man said, though his voice hitched with the pain, "your punches. Did anyone ever tell you that you hit like a girl?"

The demon growled and raised his hand again, and Buffy spoke up, "On behalf of my gender, I say, hey! He hits way worse than a girl. My little sister hits harder than him."

The demon looked even madder now, its head moving back and forth between the two as if trying to decide who to hit first and why they seemed so unafraid of him.

Another voice spoke up then. "Hell," Faith breathed, her voice weak and whispery, but all Faith, "Andrew hits harder than him."

Buffy was pretty sure that her grin might break her face. Faith was awake and that meant she was doing better than Buffy had thought. That made her extremely happy.

In truth, she was pretty sure they were all crazy. They were standing at death's door, staring straight into its really ugly snout, and they were making fun of it. But they would go out with their dignity intact. And by God, they would go out punning. It was the Slayer, and obviously the Sirius, way.

For a moment, the demon looked as if it might just take them all out right then. Buffy thought that that action might be better than whatever the demons actually had planned for them. After a moment, however, the demon smiled and stepped back.

"Very well. Laugh as you will, while you can. You won't be laughing for long. Soon you'll be screaming."

Buffy rolled her eyes, "Oh please. If I had a dollar for every time some evil, disgusting thing said that to me...well, I would never have to worry about another mortgage payment, that's for sure."

"You think you're going to get out of this, human? You think you might still achieve victory? You're pathetically wrong. You have no idea what you're dealing with, no idea who we are and let me tell you..."

"Oh my God," Buffy interrupted, shaking her head, ignoring the pain that shot through it. "What IS it with you evil people? Why always with the big speeches? 'I'm the worst evil you've ever faced," she spoke in a fake, deep voice and rolled her eyes again, before fixing the demon with a steely glare that had sent more than one bad guy running for his life. "You're the big bad, the worst of the worst, whatever. I've faced the source of evil **itself** on my world, and guess what, I won. You are nothing, in comparison. So, I suggest you watch your back very closely, because when I get the chance, I'm going to be aiming for it."

The demon couldn't help but look concerned for a moment. "For as small as she is, Buffy can be pretty damn scary when she chooses to be," Sirius thought, a small grin showing on his face. "Of course, her current attitude is likely to get us incredibly tortured and killed, but at least we'll go out with a bang."

Big Snout, as Buffy had taken to calling him in her head, suddenly snarled. "You're all talk, little girl. You're not going to do anything." He smiled again, ferociously. "I'm going to enjoy killing you, very, very slowly. And then, once the gateway is built, I will go into your world and I will rip all of your people apart one by one. When I am through, there will be no more of your puny race in any dimension."

"The gateway," Faith spoke up, "what's that?"

The demon looked disconcerted for a moment, as if he'd said something he shouldn't, but then he shrugged. Or, at least Faith thought he'd shrugged. Really hard to tell with that one.

"The high Lords have made an...arrangement with one of the humans of his world," the demon said, pointing at Sirius. "We are building a gateway that will join with an access portal on their side of the dimensional wall. Once the two are joined, we will pour into that world with all the fires of hell at our command. Of course, the Lords will eventually get rid of the mortal who dares to think he can command the lords of hell themselves. They will use the gateway to gain access into other worlds and then they will rule the worlds of man. And we will have a feast the likes of which haven't been seen since the demons lost their hold on the human dimension eons ago."

"Wait a minute," Faith spoke up again, "You're just a minion? We've wasted all this banter on a lousy minion? That sucks."

"Faith, shut up," Buffy said, eyeing the demon. They were finally getting answers. Course, they weren't likely to escape so they wouldn't be able to do much with them. But at least they'd die understanding.

The demon snarled at them all, but spoke to Faith, "A 'minion' I may be, but I will still feast on your bones, little girl. And be glad it was me you faced, and not the high Lords themselves. It is said that humans cannot even look upon them without going mad."

"I don't know," Buffy spoke up, "I didn't have any trouble killing the two high level hell gods I faced." 'Ok,' she thought, 'really, it's only a small fib. And he doesn't need to know.'

The demon actually looked taken aback by that statement. "You speak lies."

"Nope, big truth teller here. Good guy, remember? I had a bad guy ascend into a giant, snake-looking pure hell demon," Faith flinched slightly at the reminder of the man she had served and looked up to, "and a hell god with a nasty fashion sense who got kicked out by the other hell gods." Buffy shrugged, "Guess they thought she was a real bitch too."

Now the demon truly did look worried, its long snout gaping in astonishment. "YOU killed Glorificus? That isn't possible!"

"On the contrary, Big Snout. Possible, probable, and a done deal. So, see, I'm not overly worried about your big bads. Been there, done that, spilled their blood all over the T-shirt."

The demon shook its head, "You talk big, Slayer, but all you are is talk."

Buffy rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to retort, but Sirius interrupted. "This mortal you made a deal with, what's his name?"

The demon snorted, "As if the name of some idiot mortal means anything to me. He calls himself a Lord, but he is nothing more than food for our buffet table."

Sirius clenched his jaw, 'Voldemort,' he thought, 'It has to be. Voldemort's trying to open a portal from hell. If he does that...Great Merlin, what will they do?'

"So, this gateway," Buffy said, "Where's it at? How's it work?"

The demon threw back its head and laughed. "Do you still think to make an escape, Slayer?" He moved closer to her, his eyes full of evil. "How would it make you feel if I told you that the gateway is in this very city, only a few blocks from this place where you will meet your death? You can think on that as I am slowly ripping the skin from your body."

Buffy wrinkled her nose against that image, but pushed away the shiver of fear, trying to focus on the gateway. "So, the gateway's close by then? Good, won't be too hard of a walk."

The demon shook its head, "You are persistent, little girl, I will give you that. Were you a demon, I have no doubt you would be very highly placed. I will enjoy feasting on your bones." He motioned to one of the other nearby demons, who brought over a knife that looked to be made of some kind of bone. "You are brave, Slayer. I respect your Warrior spirit, tainted though it is by your mortal body. Therefore, I will give you the honor of dying by my bone knife. It is with part of my own body that I will skin you alive." He smiled, holding the knife up against her face. "Doesn't that make you feel special?"

Buffy swallowed, unable to stop herself from flinching back from the knife. She could hear Faith and Sirius wrestling with their chains and Faith called out her name. She felt the demon move the knife down slightly getting ready to cut and braced herself, closing her eyes against the pain that was to come.

And then the windows situated high along the top of the building shattered.

The big demon stumbled back from her, looking up in surprise. Buffy opened her eyes, also looking up at the windows. What she saw was, quite frankly, astonishing.

They slid down on strange looking ropes, throwing spears of some kind as they came. Whoever they were, they were dressed all in black, with dark hoods that covered their faces, except for the holes open for their eyes.

The demons reacted immediately, running to confront the new intruders. This time, however, it was they who were outnumbered. A few of the new arrivals fell, but on the whole they were very well equipped against the demons, throwing the strange spears with deadly accuracy before the demons even had the chance to get close to them.

Big Snout obviously realized that this fight was hopeless, because he turned and began to run past the chained humans. He stopped long enough to look back and snarl at the blonde Slayer. "This isn't over, human. I will be coming for you."

Buffy met his eyes, her look hard, "I'll be waiting for you."

Faith shook her head as the demon ran through a door and escaped the building, "Damn demons, always gotta leave with a parting line."

Buffy smiled slightly, but turned her attention to the approaching dark clad figures. One of them approached her, looking at her for a moment, before shaking his head. "You just can't stay out of trouble, can you Summers?"

Buffy looked confused. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. "Who the hell are you and how do you know me?" she asked.

He reached up a hand and pulled off his mask.

Buffy's jaw dropped in astonishment. "Ford?!"

He grinned at her, "Hi Buff, need a hand?"

* * *

If you have no idea who "Ford" is, then go to http: www. buffyworld. com / buffy / season 2 / transcripts / 19tran. shtml (no spaces) for a transcript of the episode from which Ford comes. 

**Reviewer Responses**:

LittleRedRabbit: Thanks so much for the review!

Goddessa39: Look, Buffy, Faith, and Sirius are doing some figuring out of things too! :) Thanks for reviewing!

Padfoot and Moony: Thanks for the defense and the compliments! Made me feel good. No worries, I couldn't change the story to please anybody, because I can only write what the muse gives me. She's very demanding that way. g

Phoenix83ad: Thank you so much for the review! I've said before and I'll say again, I think the best compliment a fanfic writer can get is that they are keeping the characters in character. I am so glad to hear that people think I am doing that. That's mucho important to me! Thanks again, and I hope I can continue to please!

Coral: Thanks so much for you review and for speaking out! I greatly appreciate it and hope I can continue to provide a quality story for you guys!


	13. Questions and Answers and More Questions

**Harry Potter and the Chains of the Soul**

**Disclaimer**: Oh how I wish they belonged to me, because then my monthly bills would be of no concern. Alas, that is not the case, they belong to Whedon and Rowling and I am, therefore, making not a single cent off of this.

**Author's Notes**: I know, I know. I took a while. Truly, I am sorry. I was working on it, I promise as well as on the next chapter, but real life and the muse do not alway cooperate. Hope it was worth the wait.

Review responses will be at the bottom, but I did want to send a thank you and hugs to my wonderful beta Arie, who is incredibly busy right now, but still took time out to beta this for me. She is a goddess, make no mistake. Thank you, Arie!

**Questions and Answers and More Questions**

Buffy looked at him in shock. "How...what...this..."

Ford laughed as he worked on unchaining her. "I can see you haven't lost your gift with words."

It was his turn to be surprised as he finally released the chains, however, because she immediately grabbed him around the neck and spun around shoving him against the wall she had just been chained to. Around her, the other black clad figures raised their spears, preparing to take her down as they had the demons. She ignored them, focused on the man she was holding.

"Who the HELL are you? And don't tell me you're Ford, because I happen to know for a fact that he's dead. Very, very dead. His lives have ended, both his life and his unlife." She tightened her grip around his neck. "I suggest you talk and you do it fast, because I am not the tiniest bit amused."

"You're right," he said.

She nodded, "Of course I am. Why don't you tell me what I'm right about." It was not a request, but a command.

He looked her square in the eye. "I'm dead. Very and completely."

She looked at him for a moment, her eyes searching his face, looking for some clue as to what she should believe.

Faith's voice brought Buffy back to the situation, "So, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you two know each other."

Sirius spoke up too, "Hey, that's great. It goes to show that you can run into people you know just about everywhere." His voice sounded nervous as he took in the dark figures still standing ready to spear them down. Having been recently rescued, he wasn't all that anxious to face down death again. "Um, Buffy, perhaps this Ford person can explain his...apparent state of living back on the ground and without you choking him to...well...death? And without his friends pointing wickedly sharp spears at us?"

Buffy seemed to finally remember where she was. She let go of Ford, stepping back, but she stayed fully alert, watching him carefully. "Explain yourself," she commanded.

He rubbed his neck, and couldn't seem to help the grin he flashed at her, "Damn, Summers, you still got the grip."

She didn't return the smile. "Look, assuming you really are Ford, the last time I saw you, you locked me and a bunch of other innocent people in a cellar to be an all you can eat buffet for a bunch of bloodsuckers, just to save yourself. Even if you really are who you say you are, I have less than one reason to trust you."

He sighed then, looking away. "You're right. You have absolutely no reason to trust me. That's why I'm here, after all." He looked back at her then, his eyes sad. "I'm a traitor, Buffy. Do you think traitors get a nice quiet afterlife? Nope, we get sent here, where we work as slaves and entertainment for the top of the line demons. The worst of the worst, if you will. The kinds of demons I deal with now make that one guy...what was his name? Spike? Anyway, they make that guy look like Gandhi in comparison. This is what happens to guys who do the things I did."

She knew she shouldn't believe him; she had no reason to trust him. And yet...her instincts told her that he was telling the truth. That he was really the boy who had once been Billy Fordham, stuck in a hell dimension because of the bad choices he'd made.

"Ok. Let's say, for laughs, that you're telling the truth. What's with the commando stuff? Busting through windows, sliding down into a demon infested warehouse to fight them off with spears? Why aren't you off doing the whole slave thing you just described?"

His face was serious as he answered. "Atonement. Even here, there's a chance, a slim one, but a chance nonetheless, that we can find atonement for what we did in our lives on earth. If we can achieve atonement, we get to get out of here. Go sit on clouds and shine our halos or something. Whatever you good guys get to do when you kick the bucket," he said, shrugging.

One of the dark clad figures stepped up then. "Ford, we need to move. They'll come back with reinforcements eventually."

Ford nodded and looked back at Buffy. "You're gonna have to decide if you trust me or not, Summers. We can help you out, but we'll need you to come with us now. Some things that you'll see will be...way weird, but you'll be safe with us. Well, as safe as you can get around here, anyway. And we could definitely use the help of a Slayer."

Again, time seemed to stop as she studied him. Then she turned to look at Faith and Sirius, asking them what they thought.

Sirius looked concerned, but didn't say anything. Faith shrugged, "Way I see it, we don't really have all that much choice."

Buffy sighed, then turned back to Ford. "We'll go with you. Just so you know, if you betray me again, dead or not, I will rip your spine clean out of your body." She smiled sweetly at him. "Just so we're clear."

He blinked, "Ouch. Well, that doesn't sound pleasant." She raised an eyebrow at him and he held both hands up in defense. "I swear, Buff. No more betrayals."

She nodded, and waved her hand in an 'after you' gesture, saying, "Don't call me Buff. I hate that."

He grinned at her, completely unrepentant. "I know," he said, and moved ahead, directing the group to circle around them and leading the way out a back door and out of the warehouse.

An hour later, in what the blonde Slayer couldn't help but consider an ironic twist, they found themselves sitting in a room in a sewer, with some disgusting glop Ford had called coffee. He couldn't help but grin when Buffy, after eyeing it suspiciously, took a tentative sip. And promptly spit it back out, eyeing what was left in the cup with a look of disgust. Hearing Ford's pitifully concealed laughter she sent him a glare.

He shrugged in response. "This isn't the Ritz-Carlton Buffy. We make do with what we got."

Even Faith was eyeing the stuff with distaste, and she didn't think **anything** could beat prison coffee. "Ok, but what **is** this stuff?"

Ford grimaced slightly, "You really don't want to know."

Buffy looked at him, "I would like to know what is going on, though. I'm thinking you should get with the 'splaining, Lucy."

Ford's mouth quirked up in a half-grin and sat on a nearby box with a sigh. "To be quite honest, Summers, I'm not even sure where to begin."

Sirius looked at the boy, who looked barely older than Harry and every bit as tired as his godson usually appeared. "They always say the beginning is the place to begin," he said, philosophically. Faith and Buffy sent him matching eye rolls, but Ford seemed to take it as honest advice.

"The beginning," he said, "well, I suppose you heard Buffy earlier, when she mentioned my betrayal. Long story short, I found out I had a brain tumor. It scared me witless. I remembered, during one of my heavily medicated periods, about Buffy and the whole deal with vampires at Hemery High. Most people had blocked it out, but I remembered. It was just too damn weird. It occurred to me then that there was a possibility of immortality, of a long life of youth and freedom, with no pain."

He looked at Buffy, "I didn't start out planning to betray you. At first, I was just looking for...well, something to take my mind off things, I guess. My original thought was that I'd head to SunnyD, find you, and die in battle, a glorious hero. But the worse the pain got, the less I wanted to die." He shook his head, an expression of self-loathing on his face. "I was such an idiot." He sighed, before re-focusing on them. "So, eventually the pain got too bad and I got stupid. Tried to betray Buffy and gain the life I thought I should have."

He smiled at Buffy then. "Luckily, Summers is way smarter than me, and a whole hell of a lot tougher. She beat me, got the people out of there and I got what I wanted...turned. Of course, the part of my body that made me mewas ripped away and that's when I ended up here."

"And, here is where, exactly?" Buffy questioned.

Ford shrugged. "I don't know all the details. What I do is this: this place is sort of like an...in between hell dimension. It's sort to all the other dimensions and thus all traffic by demons to other worlds comes through here. Well, except Quartoth. Luckily for everybody, it's completely closed off from other dimensions." He shuddered slightly, the rumors he'd heard about Quartoth were just entirely too disturbing to think about.

Faith's brow wrinkled as she tried to think of where she'd heard that name before, but as Ford went on she dismissed the thought and tuned back in to what he was saying.

"Anyway, in this dimension the barriers between here and the other non-hell worlds are really thin. In certain places, like the hellmouths, that barrier is just extremely light and can sometimes be broken through. Also, demons who still have a pretty good following in the human worlds will hang out here in hopes of being summoned. Not only that, but the demon parasites that take over vampiric hosts are also residents here. And let me just say, they are emphatically **not** young and pretty."

Buffy and Faith both blinked in shock at him. "Wait, wait, wait," Buffy said, shaking her head in confusion. "Demon parasites? Vampiric hosts? What are you talking about?"

Ford looked surprised at the question, but answered it all the same. "Well, you know that when a human is made into a vampire, the soul leaves the body, right?" At their nods, even Sirius', whose nod was somewhat amusing since the look on his face showed he was completely clueless at this point, Ford continued, "So, the soul leaves the body, and then a demon comes in and takes over, having access to the body's mind and memories. Didn't you ever wonder where the demon came from?"

Buffy and Faith shook their heads, still wearing matching expressions of shock and confusion. It was Faith who spoke, "So when they become a vampire, they get sent a demon from here? How's that work?"

Ford shrugged, "No idea, actually. It's some mystical metaphysical mojo that involves the demon somehow physically being both here and there. The explanation's nice and scientific, and science was never my strong point. They've got it all set up nicely, with a hierarchy that decides which demon gets sent where and such. But, all those parasitic demons who've yet to be hooked up with a host hang out here."

Buffy suddenly looked sick. "When we kill a vamp, we're just killing the host, then? Not the actual demon?"

Ford shook his head. "No, no. The host and the parasite are completely connected somehow. When you kill it, both the host and the demon die." He shrugged again. "I told you, I have no clue exactly how it works, but," here he looked at Buffy, "you kill the demon, not just the body. I know this, because you are sort of...um, persona non grata around here, because of the dead demons piling up under your score card."

Buffy's eyebrows rose. "You mean I'm famous in hell?" For a moment she smiled, seemingly pleased with this information.

Faith rolled her eyes. "So, basically, this dimension is a mystical stomping ground for demons jonesing to head to another dimension?"

Ford thought for a moment and then nodded, "Yeah, that sums it up pretty well."

"I have a question," Sirius spoke up.

"Only one?" Faith asked sarcastically.

Sirius shot her a glare, but otherwise focused on Ford. "You said you were...well...dead. Very and completely, I believe your words were. And, if I understood properly, then you're not actually a body, but rather the soul that was in your body. Yet, Buffy was able to hold you captive against the wall. You're obviously corporeal. How does that work?"

Buffy and Faith both nodded, showing their interest in the answer to this one, and turned to look at Ford.

Ford made a face. "Yeah, well, that's another of those weird mystical anomalies. Something in the make up of this place means that even us dead guys have a tangible body here. Real as you please. However, we're trapped here. We cannot exit through the portals and walk back into our old lives, or even new ones. Our only chance, and it's a really slim one, is to help others out and maybe, if we do enough, in a hundred years or so, we might atone enough to earn our way out of here."

Buffy pondered this for a moment, before asking, "Ok, but what others? Who is it you're helping?"

Ford shrugged, "Anyone we can. Usually, were helping someone that was killed in some ritual and ended up here by mistake. We help them get to where they're supposed to be. I've heard of others like you who've ended up stuck here somehow, but I haven't actually seen anyone before."

Buffy sighed and ran a hand over her face. "Ok, so, to recap, we're stuck in an "in-between" hell dimension with numerous big bads all just waiting to jump into other worlds and wreak havoc, who also happen to have a real mad-on to make sure I end up very dead. Again."

Ford shook his head, "Ah, no. They don't want you dead. Not at all."

The three travelers exchanged confused looks. "Ok, you must've missed the part where the alligator demon was all "gonna cut you with my bone knife and skin you alive" and such," Buffy said.

Ford wrinkled his nose at the imagery. "Oh I'm sure he had every intention of cutting you. Lots of torture and stuff, they're big on that here. But, if they kill you, you go straight on up to paradise, your body turns to dust and they're left with a whole lot of nothing. Believe me when I say, they do not want you getting off that easy."

Sirius nodded, his face dark, while Buffy and Faith both looked vaguely ill. For a moment, there was quiet as they all thought about what Ford had told them.

Buffy sighed and shook her head. "Ok, so assuming we believe what you say is true, which, I gotta tell you, would be a major leap on my part, what made you all redemption focused? As I remember it, you didn't really see that you'd done any wrong, selling me out and trapping all those people in there to die."

Ford flinched, looking away from the group. When he looked back at Buffy, she almost looked away from the sadness in his expression. Almost.

He sighed, "I wasn't 'redemption focused' to start with. At first, I railed against the unfairness of it all, screamed and yelled that I'd been dealt a bad hand, yadda, yadda. The first ten years or so were...not pleasant."

At this statement, Buffy, Faith and Sirius all looked surprised.

Ford just waved his hand, "Time is...different here. Usually, it's faster than your worlds, though not always. Anyway, the demons like to let you escape sometimes. They think its great fun to watch us gain hope, only to dash it against the rocks when they catch us again. One of the times, when I had escaped and then been recaptured, they threw me into this cell with this guy who looked really familiar to me. For the longest time I could not figure out where I'd seen him before. Course, I wasn't usually thinking overly clearly. Anyway, this guy's in there with me and he hasn't been down here very long yet. We didn't talk or anything at first. Didn't seem like there was much to be said. But, usually, the first little while that people are down here, they're all yelling and screaming, like me. But, this guy...he was just so damn sad. And he takes everything they give him. It was so incredibly odd. So one day, I just ask him about it..."

_- Flashback -_

_"Man, what's your deal?" Ford coughed, turning over so that he could spit the blood that came up out. "Door's wide open and you can get out of here. Who knows, maybe you'll be the one to make it. Seems like you should at least try to get out." _

_The man barely even looked at him, just stared at the wall, as he usually did and didn't even bother to wipe the blood that ran down his head away. "You think you actually escape from this place? People like you and me, Ford, we deserve to be here. This is not punishment, its justice."_

_Ford reared back in shock, then winced at the pain that caused. "How do you know my name?"_

_The man smiled slightly, glanced up at him and then away. "It's a small world, isn't it?"_

_Ford shook his head, sending a glare at the man. "Whatever. I don't deserve to be here. This is all some cosmic mix up."_

_The man gave a humorless laugh. "Right. Because traitors and attempted murderers all should end up in happy places when they die."_

"_How do you...you don't know what the hell you're talking about! I was sick man, I just...I didn't want to die!" Ford yelled._

_The man looked at him straight on and again Ford wondered where he had seen him before- he looked so familiar. "And yet look how you ended up, Ford. Dead. All that work to avoid what is inevitable."_

_Ford shook his head, as if to shake off the man's words. But they wouldn't go away. "I was just afraid. So incredibly afraid." This was said quietly, he didn't have the energy to yell again._

"_You were a coward," the man responded, but this time there was no censure in his voice. "You couldn't face your life as it was and you knew death was looming around the corner. So you ran, and schemed and tried to avoid it. And look where you ended up. The question you have to ask yourself now, Ford, is, are you still just a coward? The worst has happened. You're dead. So, why don't you stop running and stop denying? You belong here. You were a coward in life and you thought only of yourself and other people almost paid the price for your cowardice." His face took on a reflective look. "It's funny, really, what you can face when you accept what you are and what you've done."_

_Ford wasn't given a chance to respond, as several demons came in then, harsh smiles and sharp teeth, ready for the next round of torture._

_It was several days later before they found themselves in good enough shape to talk again. But Ford had spent most of his time, when he wasn't screaming and begging for mercy, thinking about what the man had said. For somewhere around ten years he had been in this place, screaming about the unfairness of it all. The man hadn't been here more than two weeks. Yet, he never complained. Oh, he screamed when they tortured him; one couldn't help that. But he didn't beg. He had never once begged. He kept some sort of quiet dignity, even while they tortured him. It made the demons very angry. And Ford couldn't help but admire him and desire that same kind of dignity. _

"_Is that why you never beg? Because you've accepted that it's supposedly your fault you're here?"_

_The man shifted slightly, wincing as he did so. "I never beg because I deserve all that they do to me and more. I hurt...so many people. People who were my friends, who believed in me. I betrayed them, the best person...people I have ever known. Whatever they do to me here, it will never hurt as bad as the knowledge of what I did to those who I was supposed to protect. Those who I should've died for."_

_In that moment, an image of Buffy's face went through Ford's mind: her looking up at him with excitement and joy at seeing him again, her happily walking beside him that night in Sunnydale, her smile and relief at realizing he knew she was the Slayer. He knew that Buffy would never let someone else die so that she could live. She had come to that club, willing to die so that a group full of idiotic children who had no clue about real darkness or vampires could live. In that moment, for the first time in his entire life, Ford looked at his life clearly and found himself wanting. He couldn't help the tears that fell at that moment. _

"_I wish I could apologize," he said, suddenly. "I think I would take another ten years of torture, just for the chance to apologize."_

_The man looked at him straight on then and gave him a nod and a half-smile. "Accept what you've done, accept the responsibility. That's the first step."_

_- End Flashback -_

"That was the start of it for me. Ten years of torture and a really good example. They took the guy away not too long after that, took him someplace else, one of the other hell dimensions, I'm pretty sure. Someplace worse. They disliked him almost as much as they dislike you. I never did see him again. About five years later, a group of us managed to escape together aided, oddly enough, by some demons. Lesser demons, who weren't any happier about being in this dimension than we were. We set up some bases, learned to throw spears and began working on atonement. The rest, as they say, is history."

They stared at him, fairly shocked at his story. Sirius could vouch for the torture part at least. The first month of his time here, before they moved him out to the desert to work, had been spent in one of those cells. It was not something he wanted to dwell on.

Faith spoke up. "Did you ever find out who he was?"

Ford's glanced at Faith, but then focused in on Buffy. "Yes, I remembered not long after they took him away. I don't remember his name, but he was the guy you were semi-dating, Buffy, back when I came to Sunnydale."

Buffy's face went white. "Angel?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. At the sound of the name, Faith sat straight up in shock.

Ford cocked his head for a moment and then shrugged. "That sounds right, but I really don't remember. Been quite a while for me."

Buffy swallowed against the lump in her throat and looked away, blinking back tears. Angel had been a prisoner in this place. And he'd been here because she'd sent him. He'd endured this, believing he deserved it, that it was justice. It didn't really matter how many times she told herself she'd had no choice, how many times **he** told her that she'd done the right thing; she wasn't sure she'd ever really forgive herself for that. Especially not now, when she knew what he had been through. And this place had been just the start. By the time they had finished with him in the other place, he'd been animalistic, crazy. She was the one who had failed him, not the other way around.

Sirius, who was closest to Buffy, reached over and laid a hand on her shoulder. He had no idea who this Angel was, but he had obviously been very important to Buffy. He could feel the pain radiating from her at this moment. She sent him a grateful glance.

Faith broke the silence, clearing her throat, then saying, "He's ok, now. Angel. He got out and...well, he's ok."

Ford blinked in shock. "He got out? How?"

Faith glanced at Buffy and then shrugged. "It's...really a long story."

Ford looked from Faith to Buffy and back to Faith before nodding. "Well, good for him. I'm glad. He deserved to get out."

Sirius squeezed Buffy's shoulder, before letting go and turning back to Ford. "So, you help people get out of here, huh? How would we go about obtaining those services?"

Ford made a face. "Well, that's something of a problem actually. See, our big thing is helping dead people, who shouldn't have ended up here, find their way into their proper afterlife. Quite frankly, you're the first actually still living humans I've seen here. I don't really know how to get you out of here. Except..." he trailed off, looking slightly uncomfortable for a moment.

"Except?" all three of them asked in unison.

Ford looked at them amused for a second, before sobering again and explaining cautiously. "Recently, there's been a lot of activity around here. The big guys are building some weird machine thing up on the mountain. Rumor has it it's a portal to one of the human dimensions. One that's supposed to be completely open, meaning there will be no summoning necessary for the very lords of hell themselves to take a vacation there, should they choose to. Evidently, they've been in talks with some major bad guy in that world, who's trying to work things out on his end. Should they get that working, well it'd be a way for you to get out of here, but..." he trailed off, looking decidedly concerned.

"But that would leave a portal open for demons to waltz right through," Faith finished sourly. "I gotta say, sometimes, being a good guy sucks."

Sirius had dropped his head into his hands, understanding the danger of this all too well. "We have to destroy that portal," he finally spoke, his voice rough. Both Buffy and Faith looked at him sadly, knowing how hard that was to say, knowing how badly he wanted to get back to his godson.

Ford spoke slowly, thinking as he spoke. "It could be possible to do both, destroy the portal and send you three through it. If we did it just right."

They looked at him with hope. As far as Buffy was concerned, any world was better than this one. She could continue looking for a way back to her own world from there.

Ford shook his head. "We're gonna need more help, though. I know very little about this portal they're building."

"So, how do we get more help?" Buffy asked.

"I have someone on the inside, a source, who will help sometimes. I'll have to contact him and see what he can tell me. For now, you three will just have to hang out here with us and wait until we find out more." He stood then, but raised a finger at them when they stood up. "Let me take this moment to stress that you absolutely CANNOT go wandering around without us. You are number one on the big guys top ten most wanted list. It's highly doubtful we'd be able to rescue you a second time."

None of them looked overly happy with this admonishment, and Faith had a semi-belligerent look on her face, but even she nodded slightly when Ford's glanced at her. She got it. She didn't like it, but she got it. "So," she said, her tone mocking, "We'll just sit in this little room in the sewers with our thumbs up our..."

"Faith,." Buffy interrupted, giving the younger girl a glare. Faith glared back, but she closed her mouth. She knew they were right. She was, after all, still recovering from the concussion she'd gotten in their last fight. Didn't mean she had to like it, though.

Ford raised his eyebrows at the exchange, but decided to ignore it. "Good. So, sit tight here. I'll go see what info I can dig up. I'll also get some food in for you. I'll warn you now, it's not much better than the coffee. But, you'll need your strength. Any way you look at it, this whole thing'll more than likely end up in a fight to the death."

Buffy shrugged. "Life as normal, then."

He smiled at her slightly before heading out the door. Closing the door tightly behind him, he made sure he was well away from it before motioning to two men who were standing close by. "Contact Syndellen." He glanced back towards the room where the three visitors waited. "Tell him I've got something of his and he'd better make it worth my while if he wants to get it back."

--------------

As the door closed behind the departing Ford, Faith glanced at Buffy. "So, you trust this guy?"

Buffy looked at the closed door a moment longer before turning to Faith. "About as far as Xander can throw him. You?" she asked, including Sirius with a look.

Sirius looked confused. "Well, I'm not sure who Xander is, but if by that you meant you trust him not at all, I'm in agreement. Parts of his story sound real enough, but other parts sound too pat."

Faith nodded. "He's definitely hiding something, that I'm for sure on. But what's his real game here? Why'd he rescue us in the first place?"

Buffy sighed and shook her head. "I really don't know. What I do know is, he slipped past my defenses once. Its not gonna happen again. Plus, he used Angel in order to get to me. That does NOT sit well with me. We'll need to be prepared for anything."

Sirius and Faith both nodded in agreement. "Hey, B, you know me. I'm always ready and willing to do a little bodily harm. I got your back," Faith spoke, giving Buffy a fierce look. She and B had a whole, long, load of mess between them, but she wouldn't let the blonde down again. Come hell or high water, she'd be the right kind of Slayer this time.

Sirius raised an eyebrow, sensing the undertone beneath the statement. From several comments made in the couple of days they'd traveled together, he had gotten the idea there was quite a history between these two. He had pretty much decided he really didn't want to know what it was, though. He cleared his throat, interrupting the strangely intense look the two were sharing. "So, any ideas how to destroy the big metal thing and stop the demons from taking over the world, ah, worlds?"

"Actually," and here Buffy smiled slightly, "I do." She motioned at them to move closer, and with their heads together, they began to plan.

* * *

**Reviewer Responses:**

SiriusEarendil: Well, I'm glad you were stunned, that was the reaction I was looking for! :) Thank you so much for your review!

smurfinator: Well, I don't know if you can classify Ford as "evil," but he was a bad guy and he did die at the end of the ep. Hopefully, the explanation I provided in the story answered your questions, while opening up even more for you. Thanks for reading!

Padfoot and Moony: Thank you so much! Suspense and mystery are my favorite kinds of reading, so I'm so happy that I'm doing well at that.

zayra: I love it when I leave people stuttering! :) Thank you so much for the review, hope this chapter was worth the wait!

phoenix83ad: A "what the hell" reaction is exactly what I was hoping for, so I'm glad to hear it worked! :) Hopefully, I've answered some of the questions of his appearance, while bringing up even more questions. Yep, I'm evil that way! ;) Thanks so much for reviewing, it is greatly appreciated (and coveted!).

tracey: Thanks so much for reviewing! I'm glad I got Faith and Buffy right. Buffy's easier, because I talk like her, but Faith's a little harder. I'm trusting reviewers like you to let me know if I mess it up! :) Thanks again!

Goddessa39: Thanks for the review, I'm glad you like the Ford angle! Hope the chapter was worth the wait.

**Next chapter**: We should see some more of the Scoobies and what they are doing in looking for their friends. Hopefully it will be out by next Friday, assuming RL cooperates. Could someone beat it into submission for me? ;)


	14. The Crater Formerly Known as Sunnydale

**Disclaimer: **You know the drill: the Potterverse belongs to Rowling and the Buffyverse belongs to Whedon. I'm just playingwith them for a time.

**Author's Notes: **I'm so very sorry for the long wait here guys. Life was very busy for me there for a bit and then I got hit with a massive case of writer's block. I think my muse took a holiday or something. But, thanks in large part to a great amount of help from my terrific beta Arie (goddess that she is), this chapter finally got written. And, its a pretty long one too, so maybe that will make up some for the longness between updates!

Just a note, I've started a yahoo group, mainly so, if something happens to , the story can still be read. But, also, I'd like a place where you guys can really get in depth and tell me what you think, without feeling like you are restrained or anything. Anyway, its open to everyone and I don't send out a lot of notes or anything. You can find it at http : groups. yahoo. com /group / ryianasfics / (just take out the spaces).

Review responses at the bottom.

**The Crater Formerly Known as Sunnydale**

In the week since the Scoobies and Co. had gotten to LA, no one could say that they hadn't been busy. Giles had immediately assigned everyone duties of some sort. The Slayers were taking regular shifts patrolling LA and the surrounding areas. When making a report to Angel, Gunn had made the comment that the City of Angels was no doubt safer in that one week than it had been for the past century. Angel really had to agree.

Kennedy, Rona, and Vi had stepped up into leadership positions for the moment. Kennedy had always thought that being a leader was what she wanted, however it didn't take longer than a day for her to find that the reality of leadership was a whole lot different than the dream of it.

Xander was keeping busy whipping the hotel into shape. "There's a lot of mess," he had said, "but the structure's sound." Whichever girls weren't on that day's patrol schedule were roped into helping him. He was glad for the work; it kept his mind off Anya and Buffy. Hell, he even missed Faith, not that he dwelled on that thought for too long.

Robin and Giles were working far too much, contacting any Watchers that might still be alive and attempting to look for any other Slayers that had been activated by the spell done to defeat the First. They had not had a lot of luck in finding any Watchers at all. But so far, in just that week, they'd already found seven more new Slayers, who'd been brought to the hotel and put under the guidance of some of the more experienced, by all of a week, Slayers.

Andrew took up the place he had found in the Summers' household – he was cook and caretaker of the group. The eye rolls and annoyed looks in his direction were plentiful, but deep down, all of them found themselves thankful for his presence. Especially when dinner time rolled around.

Luckily, everyone was kept busy enough that they didn't really have time to ask what it was that Willow and Dawn spent their time doing. As neither one of them were overly good liars, it meant they didn't have to attempt to come up with a cover story for all the time they spent at the Wolfram and Hart offices, digging through the books that Wesley called up for them. So far, their searching had afforded them very little.

At the moment, Willow was going over an ancient Assyrian location spell that looked promising. It had mentions of locating someone in a hell dimension. Unfortunately, it was in an Assyrian dialect that was practically unknown and had, thus far, resisted all efforts by the Wolfram and Hart magics, as well as the considerable abilities of Willow and Wesley, of translation.

She sat surrounded by translation texts and similar examples of the Assyrian language, along with a laptop, attempting to set up a program that would take out similar examples from the text and other Assyrian documents and help translate the text. She would've been sufficiently creeped out had she realized how closely she resembled another woman who had attempted to do the same to an outdated Gypsy language once upon a time, and had ended up dead for it.

Even her advanced computer skills had yet to sufficiently translate enough to let her know if the spell would actually tell them if Buffy and Faith still lived and, if that were true, where it was that they still lived. The task was becoming frustrating to the extreme.

Dawn, meanwhile, sat in another room, the focus of her current research something she had hidden even from Willow. The texts surrounding her, most of them not even from this dimension, had to do with a certain ancient mystical object most often called the "key." It had occurred to her, while she was attempting to help the great researchers known as Willow and Wesley in looking for spells, that her original essence had in fact been some sort of dimensional opening device. After the mess with Glory and Buffy's death, she and the others had been far too busy grieving and hiding things from the Watcher's Council to worry about the reality of her being. It had occurred to her later to wonder what she was now, with Glory gone, but she had found herself just extremely thankful for that whole mess to be over. She knew that, whatever the others might think, there were some residual effects left over from being the key. Up until the situation with the First, Buffy and the others had never let her have anything to do with the apocalypses they had to deal with, so she hadn't even realized the things she could do until very recently. One ability she had taken note of was an almost amazing capacity for languages. She could usually get at least a basic grasp of a language within a few days. It was from this ability that she had picked up quite a surprising grasp of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Sumerian. Not that she could start speaking the language fluently, or anything, mind you, but she had enough of a grasp that she could do fairly decent translation work. She was pretty sure she didn't get that gift from Buffy or their parents.

In any case, Wolfram and Hart had access to far more files than they had ever dreamt of back when they had first found out about the Key and were dealing with Glory. These included, she had disgustedly found, an ancient spell from, she assumed, Glory's original dimension, that would have contained the "god" until after the time of the portal's opening and closing. "No one would've had to be sacrificed at all, if we'd just had this damn spell available to us," she thought, disgustedly.

In any case, while these spells offered much in the way of stopping Glory, something which they'd managed to do just fine on their own as it turned out, they said little about the use and capability of the key. After more than fifty different scrolls and texts, she still knew next to nothing about what she was and how she could use that to save her sister and her friends.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" she yelled finally, in frustration, sweeping the texts surrounding her off the table in one angry move of her hand.

"You do realize," came the snotty voice of one of the assistants Wesley had working in here with her, "that many of those are thousand year old documents."

She sent a glare the woman's way. "Actually, they are copies of thousand year old documents, so y'know, I'm not gonna sit here and feel bad."

The woman sniffed and, Dawn was sure, sent some dirty looks her way. At this moment, Dawn could truly care less. Her sister could be alive and stuck somewhere, so as far as she was concerned, she didn't care if she had to piss off the entire freaking world, she was going to figure out exactly what happened down in that cavern in Sunnydale and she was going to make sure Buffy was safe. She just had to figure out how.

With a sigh, she bent to gather the papers and books she had just strewn off the table. She would admit, but only to herself, that swiping them off really hadn't done any good. Though it had felt pretty good. As she gathered the group together, the markings on one of the papers caught her attention. They were crude drawings, rather than the language scrawled on other parts of the paper. One showed some sort of opening of some kind; it looked vaguely like an archway. She wasn't really sure what that one was. The other one, however, was the one that had caught her attention this time. If she wasn't mistaken, this was a picture of the amulet that Angel had brought to Buffy and Buffy had in turn given to Spike. The one that the girls who had been down in the hellmouth with them at the end had said started to give off a great light. 'Now, why would paperwork about Glory and the Key make mention of that amulet?' she wondered.

Suddenly revitalized, she gathered the rest of the papers from the floor and spread them out once again on the table around her, her face firm with determination. 'We really didn't know anything about that amulet,' she thought, 'but I think its time we learned.'

- - - - -

Miles away from where Willow and Dawn struggled with their respective research, Angel and an excavation team had set up shop at the Sunnydale site. He couldn't help but be glad for the multi-million dollar law firm that enabled him to have official permission to be on the site of the caved in former suburb, evil though it might be. Of course, he was never there when the other government exploration teams were, considering he wasn't overly anxious to go up in flames. But his own team explored during the day with the other people, and at night he had the place pretty much to himself.

So far, they'd had little luck. Of course, they'd spent the better part of the week digging into the cavern, attempting to pinpoint where the former hellmouth sat. The hellmouth had always been a constant presence in Sunnydale. Good or evil, Angel had always felt it. So, it had come as quite a shock, to drive to where the former city had sat and to feel…well, basically nothing. Oh, there were some latent energies, for lack of a better term. But they felt…old, worn; like the smell of smoke that lingers for weeks after a fire. Not the real thing, just a memory. He couldn't help but be amazed again at what Buffy had pulled off. Time and time again, she should have given up, given in. She definitely should have lost, should've been beaten. And yet, she always came back with something, something no one expected and blew everyone away.

No one had expected her to be able to take down the Mayor, and yet she'd come up with a brilliant plan and executed it, all while injured. No one had considered her stubborn refusal to kill Dawn to save the world, or her amazing ability to figure out she could step in for Dawn and satisfy both the requirements for closing the portal and her own desire to protect her sister. Certainly, no one had expected her to be able to stick a sword through his gut and send him to hell to save the world, soul and all. She still felt guilty for that, he knew, but he didn't think he could ever be more proud of her for her ability to do what she had done. And now, somehow, she'd managed to close off a portal that had been in existence for as long as anyone remembered. He shook his head and smiled ruefully. 'No one should make the mistake of underestimating Buffy Summers,' he thought.

He sighed as he looked out the necrotempered window of the car he spent the days in. He should not be spending his time reminiscing, as it did nothing but make him brood more. Cordelia would be sure to tell him, were she here, that brooding certainly didn't do anyone any good, and he had learned that she was correct more often than not about that. Yet, he still needed a good brood on occasion, and personally he felt that, after the year he had just endured, he damn well deserved a good brood.

He laid his head back against the seat and attempted to calm his thoughts. He really needed to get some more sleep, since he would be spending his night digging through the crater again. He believed, though, that he was going to have to bring Willow out here. He just couldn't get a good enough read on where the hellmouth had sat to be able to do any real tests for what might have happened to Buffy and Faith. And Spike.

And there was something else as well. How was he supposed to feel, exactly, that Buffy had taken the amulet he had given her and entrusted it to Spike, of all people? He knew the bleached blonde whelp had been helping the Slayer, but he had figured that it had been benefiting Spike in some way. But, Spike giving himself to save the world? Spike falling in love with Buffy? It just did not sit well with him, not well at all.

He knew he no longer had any right to speak where Buffy was concerned. He had been fairly amused by her cookie analogy, that last time they had spoken, but he had understood it. He knew that he too had grown much in the time they had been apart, and still had growing to do. He also knew that he had feelings for Cordelia, feelings that were different, but every bit as real as what he felt for the blonde Slayer. Yet…it really didn't matter how far apart they became or if, as seemed likely, they never were together again as they once had been. He and Buffy shared a bond. He cared about her, deeply, and he wanted her safe. And safe, in his mind, certainly did not include Spike.

"Spike…who is likely dead. As Buffy also might be." He said it out loud, hoping that if he said it enough, it might quell the hope he had been living on for the last week. It didn't matter really if he was together with Buffy, just as long as he knew she was alive and well, somewhere in the world. Truth was, he wasn't sure they could go back to what they were before; there had been just so much that had happened, to both of them. But what had been formed between them, while perhaps never again becoming romance, was still every bit as important. She was his friend, his heart, his vision and he wanted her on earth, at the very least. It seemed unfair that, at this point, with a world now brimming with Slayers, when she could've finally rested some and enjoyed at least something of a normal life, now she was taken away.

A knock on the door of the vehicle drew him out of his brood and he quickly moved to the other side, out of the way of the sun, as the door opened and Fred slid in.

"Hey, Angel," she said, giving him a smile. "I didn't wake you did I?"

He shook his head, giving her a quick smile in return. "Anything?"

She looked hesitant as she spoke, "There might be. I'm not really sure, the energies are just almost non-existent here. I'm getting some various readings in the meta-physical scale, but I'm just not sure if those are actual signs that, hey, there used to be a hellmouth right here, or if they're just," she waved a hand in the air, "just leftover energies, floating around with no place else to go. We've have gotten a few little spikes in certain areas, I've marked them with the stakes we brought, but…I just can't be sure." She looked at him, her face apologetic, as she finished.

He sighed and ran a tired and frustrated hand across his face. "Any other ideas on how to look for it?"

She opened her mouth, closed it, then gave a sigh of her own. "None that involve the sciences. For all the mystical information Wolfram and Hart have at their disposal, there's just nothing to record something like this. I mean, who'd have thought you could make a hellmouth just go away? I think our best bet might be to get Willow out here, see if she can't pick up any of the magical signatures that the hellmouth gave off."

Angel nodded, "I've been thinking the same thing. I was hoping we wouldn't have to bring her back here. It was her home, for all her life. It's not easy to suddenly find your home just…gone."

He got a faraway look in his eyes as he felt the impact of that statement. He knew it was true, because he had been there before. After the gypsies had restored his soul and Darla had thrown him out, he had wandered for a bit, and found himself back in Ireland at the place that had once been home to a boy named Liam. But a century had passed since he had last been there and the brutal deaths of its owners had left the place with a stigma. With no one willing to buy it or care for it, it had fallen into disrepair and ruin. It had been the pain of seeing that, that had brought home exactly what his life, or lack thereof, existed of now. Terrified at the prospect of being alone, he had responded by crawling back to Darla, begging to be included again, wanting so badly to go back to the days when he just hadn't cared. It was an impossibility, of course, and the sight of that crumbling and decayed ruin had stayed with him for a very long time.

"Angel?" Fred touched his arm in concern, wondering what had him looking so very sad.

He blinked at her, coming back from his thoughts, and shook his head slightly. "Sorry. I'll call Willow and get her down here as quickly as possible."

Fred nodded, then looked at him, a hesitant look on her face.

He looked at her and sighed. "You think I'm wasting my time here?"

She shook her head. "Nah. You wouldn't be you if you didn't attempt every possible method to save those you care about." She trailed off, again looking slightly hesitant, as if she really didn't want to say what she felt she needed to say.

"What is it, Fred?"

"Well, I just…its closed and gone. I mean, granted hellmouths are not my specialty. I didn't even know they existed until I met you guys, but…Angel, if we do find that Buffy and the others were trapped in there, how would we get them back out? We can't just open it and close it like it's a door. If we try to open it up again…" she trailed off, looking decidedly uncomfortable.

"We'd have to leave it open again?" He finished her sentence wide-eyed, looking at her in disbelief.

She looked at him apologetically and shrugged. "I just…I don't know. Like I said, totally new area here. But it took some major physic and magical energy to close it in the first place. The backlash from that energy ripped a hole in the ground and destroyed an entire town." She looked at him again, her eyes sad. "I didn't know Buffy and only barely knew Faith, but…" she cut herself off, as if she didn't dare finish the sentence out loud.

Angel, however, had picked up the gist of what she was saying. It made him mad, furious even, but he made the conscious decision not to take it out on Fred. She was doing her job as his employee, as a valuable member of his team, and, more importantly, as his friend. He took a deep, unnecessary, breath, taking the time to clear his thoughts and take control of his anger. He let the breath out again in a sigh, sadness taking the place of the anger as he spoke.

"They wouldn't want us to take the chance." He set his jaw and looked out the window. "In fact, they'd kick our asses for even contemplating it." He ran a hand over his eyes, feeling every single one of his over 250 years at that moment. How exactly did one decide between the fate of the world and the people they loved? Were he and the others truly to be left with the choice of saving their friends, but once again opening up the hellmouth, or quite possibly leaving their friends to torture and pain in a hell dimension in order to keep the world safe?

Fred laid a hand on his arm. "We don't know enough yet to give up. Really, the energies are almost nonexistent. Maybe it would be impossible to open it up like that again. Maybe there's a spell or something we can do to get them back. I really shouldn't have even said anything." She bit her lip, her eyes taking on a decidedly angry glare, and Angel knew she was berating herself for speaking up.

"No, Fred, you did what was right." He sighed and squeezed her hand. "Buffy and Faith sacrificed a lot to close the hellmouth down. We can't just jump in without carefully checking out each and every angle. We need all the information we can get our hands on in order to make a decision."

She didn't look overly convinced, but she nodded anyway and gave him a small smile. "Well, I guess I'd better get back to it. There's still quite a bit of ground to cover. Maybe we'll run across something in one of the other areas." The optimism in her voiced was forced, but Angel appreciated the effort all the same.

He gave a return smile and nod as she climbed out and then reached for his phone. Whether or not he wanted to contact Willow, she was pretty much the most powerful witch on the planet. If any one could get an idea of where the hellmouth had been, and also of what steps they should take now, it was she. He'd have to be careful with her though. He was pretty sure she had learned her lesson about rushing in from the whole incident last year, but he wasn't going to take any chances of opening the hellmouth until they were sure they could close it back up. It would be a mutual decision by all of them, both his inner circle and the "Scooby" one.

"Wes," he said, when the line connected, "let me talk to Willow."

-----------

He stood quietly as he watched the helicopter approach. He and Willow had decided it would be better for her to come out during the dark hours. The government people were already antsy about Angel's crew being there. It was only the fact that the governor of California owed Wolfram and Hart a few favors that had insured their continued presence at the site. Angel didn't feel the need to push matters any if he didn't have to, however, so they'd waited until a time when the other workers would be gone. With it being a Friday, they'd be gone for the whole weekend, giving Willow plenty of time to work.

The helicopter landed, and he moved forward, opened the door and started in surprise at the group gathered in the craft. Willow had evidently mentioned something to someone back at the hotel, because sitting, rather scrunched together, were Willow, Giles, Xander, Dawn, and Kennedy. As they all climbed out and moved away from the chopper, Willow gave him an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, I know you weren't expecting all of us. But, I, well, I mentioned to Dawn where I was going and she insisted on coming, but she had to get Giles' permission of course. He said only if he came as well, but Xander overheard and insisted on coming and Kennedy wouldn't let me go without protection and…"

Xander's hand over the redhead's mouth cut off the stream of explanations. "Will, breathe," he commanded, "I'm sure Deadboy doesn't need a bunch of explanations for us being here."

Angel made a face at the long despised nickname, but ignored the urge to comment back and simply nodded. "It's fine. You all have a right to be here."

Xander nodded and looked back at Willow. "See? No more babbling." Then, a strange look passed over the dark-haired man's face and he turned to Angel, "Uh, sorry about the nickname. Force of habit, you know?"

Angel blinked at the other man in shock and had to fight off the inane urge to look over his shoulder to see who Xander was speaking to. Quite obviously he and Buffy had not been the only people who had done a lot of growing over the past several years.

Dawn couldn't help her grin at the expression on Angel's face. "Might want to close your mouth, Angel."

The vampire's mouth shut with a snap and he nodded, somewhat dumbly, at the dark-haired man. "Uh, no problem."

Xander nodded back distractedly, his focus already on the sunken cavern that now existed where the city had once stood. "Not sure I'm ever gonna get used to that," he mumbled slightly, as the group began to move toward the crater.

Willow was looking with concern at the large hole. "It…feels wrong," she said.

Angel immediately stepped up next to her. "Wrong how? Are you sensing the hellmouth?"

She turned to him with wide eyes. "I'm…No. I'm not. I think…that's what's wrong. It's just, not there. I…I never realized…the energy it must have given off. Its like, a completely new place."

Angel sighed, "That's what I was afraid of. That's what I feel too." He looked at the group around him. "All of you should be proud, you've done something completely unheard of. Something no one thought was even possible."

"I'd be quite a bit more proud if this great thing had not been accomplished at the loss of my Slayer," Giles said acerbically.

Angel flinched and the group as a whole looked suddenly even more downcast.

Giles closed his eyes and ran a hand over his face. "Forgive me. I should not speak as such. I'm afraid I haven't been getting much sleep and being back here…well, it's not easy."

Angel shook his head. "I understand," he said simply. For several minutes, as the group made their way carefully down into the crater, there was silence, caused more by the location than by any strenuous activity. Fred was waiting next to a tall marker with a bright light attached to it. Several of these markers were placed throughout the crater, marking the areas where Fred and her team had found the energy signatures. She lifted her hand in greeting, sending the group a smile as they made their way over to where she stood.

"Hi," she said, somewhat shyly. "How are ya'll?" She immediately grimaced and looked embarrassed. "Sorry. Guess that's a really stupid question."

Willow smiled at the dark-haired girl who she felt quite a kinship with, considering how alike they were. "Of course it's not. We're ok. Well, you know, not **okay** okay, but we're…" Willow shook her head at the babble that seemed to be constant over the past several days. It always seemed to be worse when she was stressed and nervous, both emotions which she had been experiencing in the extreme over the past week. "So, the markers mark the spots, huh?"

Kennedy couldn't help the fond smile she sent at the redhead. Willow was extremely cute when she babbled and even cuter when she realized she was babbling and tried to be all business like instead. Of course, as far as Kennedy was concerned, Willow was always cute. She watched the redhead as she entered into a heavily scientific discussion with Fred and decided that perhaps Willow wasn't quite as cute when she started with the Star Trek speak, but that probably had as much to do with the fact that Kennedy got lost and bored by it as anything else. Tuning out of the conversation between the others, she glanced around at the remains of the town of Sunnydale.

When she had overhead Xander and Giles discussing making a trip back to the site of the town, she had been beyond confused, wondering what reason they could possibly have for going back there. Later, when Willow had come back to their room to gather a few things, Kennedy had cornered her and, using all of her persuasive tactics, had finally drug the truth out of the other girl. She wasn't really sure what she thought about all this. Fact of the matter was, she had never been Buffy's biggest fan. She had thought the blonde girl to be arrogant and bossy and overbearing. And man, those never ending speeches!

Now that she was on this side of things, however, one of the leaders, one of the responsible ones, she found that perhaps she still had a whole bunch to learn. She had thought that she understood, that she knew better than Buffy. She had thought Buffy had made a mess of things in taking care of the potentials. But, now that she was one of the ones they looked to for guidance, the one they looked to for direction, she suddenly found herself to be dealing with a whole host of uncertainties. And, though she would never, not even on pain of death, admit it, she wished several times this week for the older Slayer's advice. Besides all that, she knew that Willow loved the original Slayer and whatever made Willow happy made Kennedy happy as well.

But, on the other hand, it had been a horrible, painful, exhausting fight, getting the hellmouth closed. She knew she hadn't carried near the load the older Slayers and the other "Scooby" gang members had, but she had felt the burden nonetheless. They had lost quite a few girls that day, not just Buffy and Faith. She was greatly worried that they were messing with something that should not be messed with here. Granted, she had a sort of innate distrust of magic, so she knew she was automatically likely to be suspicious of anything they came up with. Yet, she didn't want all that they had done here to go to waste, just on the off chance that somehow Buffy and Faith survived. Personally, she found that highly unlikely. She was pretty sure they were dead, buried somewhere under tons of rock and debris.

"But what if they aren't?" a little voice whispered in the back of her mind. "What if they're alive and trapped, just as Willow says? Would you want her to give up looking for you?" She sighed to herself at the thoughts. Fact of the matter was, the decision wasn't up to her. This was a Scooby, and apparently an Angel (and what WAS the deal with all these "good" vampires anyway), decision and, despite the fact that she was dating Willow, she was not a Scooby.

She was brought out of her thoughts when the group started moving. She was sort of surprised that she had been so deep in thought that she had completely missed the conversation between the others and thus had no clue where they were headed. She needn't have worried however, as they were only moving to another of the markers that were set up around the site. This time she focused on the group around her.

Willow walked slowly around the area where the marker sat, stopping every so often and closing her eyes. After a few moments of this, she let out a sigh, a frustrated look on her face. "I just don't know. I do feel something, but it's like…like an echo, almost. It's distant and nothing I can really grasp a hold of." She made a face and shook her head, then reached for the bag that Kennedy held. "I do know a spell that should give me a sort of…memory of what was here before. If nothing else, we could probably narrow down where the high school sat that way. Of course, it will take forever, but, "she shrugged, "it's the best I've got at this point."

The others nodded and Giles moved to help Willow set up for the spell, the rest watching closely. Dawn watched as well for a few seconds, but the teen quickly grew bored with watching and wandered off on her own, not straying too far from the others, but checking out the areas further away.

Being back here was just…so strange. There were so many memories, so much life that had happened in this place. She remembered moving to Sunnydale, the fear of a new town and new people and the ache of leaving dad behind. She remembered dinners and fights and staying up late watching old movies with Mom and Buffy. Of course, she also remembered being kidnapped, apocalypses, and various forms of horrible, deadly demons coming after her and her sister. Sunnydale had not been the greatest of places to grow up. They had dealt with one monster after another and had lived with the constant knowledge that they, or someone they loved, could die at any moment. Two years ago, hell even six months ago, she would've been jumping up and down at the thought of being out of Sunnydale and never having to come back.

And yet, now, standing here, looking at the ruined remains – a deep, scorched crater, with the broken bits of houses and the odd memorabilia strewn around – she greatly missed it. She wanted it all back. For as hard as everything in Sunnydale had been, at least they had known where they stood. They had understood the way things were and their place in the grand scheme of things. Now, everything was up in the air. She had no clue what she was supposed to do now. And she couldn't…damn it, she just couldn't do this without Buffy. Her sister was all she had left, deadbeat dad notwithstanding. The hope that Buffy was still alive and okay was all that was keeping her sane at this moment. She had been created from Buffy and, despite the memories the monks had provided, Buffy was her anchor in this world. She didn't know who she was if her sister was gone.

At least, when Buffy had been gone before, she had had Spike there to help her. Whatever the others might think, she knew that Spike had cared deeply for her and had done a lot to help take care of her and of Buffy. She missed him. She missed them all, even Faith, though she didn't dwell for long on **that** particular thought. Faith, for all that she had helped them over the past several months, was still something of an enigma to Dawn. She didn't know what she thought of the reformed Slayer. She did know, however, that, with the notable exceptions of Glory and the creepy doctor who had sliced her on the tower, no one deserved to be trapped in a hell dimension.

But, did she really believe that's where they were? She had lived this week on the hope that this time Willow was right, that this time they really were stuck in a hell dimension and would be back, just as soon as the group figured out the right spell to get to them. And yet…that horrible voice inside of her kept pointing out that that was a fool's hope; the desperate wish of friends and family that did not want to face the thought that they might never see their loved ones again. In all likelihood, Buffy and Faith and Spike were…dead, having finally met the end that their different callings had prescribed for them.

With a sigh, the teen glanced back over at the others. Willow was moving the group to a different marker, the last one having obviously been a bust. For a moment, she considered going back to join them. She knew, if they were to notice her wandering around, they'd be calling her back quickly and then there'd be the lectures about not wandering off and being careful and what have you. Like she was 10 and not 17 years old. She had lost her sister and gained 15 guardians, all of who seemed determined to protect her and keep her out of trouble. She smiled slightly in their direction at that thought. They loved her; she got that now in a way she hadn't in earlier times. But, that certainly didn't mean she was going to make things easier for them. Nope, wasn't gonna happen. Which meant, of course, that she decided she'd go ahead and wander a little farther.

Meanwhile, Willow was setting things up to do the memory spell on the next of Fred's marked sections. She was masking her frustrations with having to do this in this way. She knew she could only do this particular spell three or four more times before she had to stop for the night. As much as she would like to push herself beyond her limits, she had learned the hard way, several times, that in most cases doing so just made things worse. Unfortunately, in this situation, it meant it could take them months to find where the hellmouth had sat. And, exactly what they would do once they found its location…well, she didn't know. The truth was, she wasn't sure about a lot of this. She wanted so badly to have her friend back, wanted to give her the chance to enjoy the new world Buffy had created with her idea, to laugh and cry and all that again. And yet, she couldn't help but realize how familiar that feeling was. When Buffy had died before, she had felt just as determined, just as sure, just as convinced that she was doing the right thing. And she had ended up ripping her friend straight out of the rest that she had so rightly earned. The trauma from that experience, along with waking up inside her coffin, had haunted the Slayer for a very long time.

And now, here she stood again, faced with the likelihood of her friend's death and bound and determined to do something to right it. There was so little that they knew, so little even she, with all her power, understood. And this wasn't just her friends' lives she was messing with. If they did this and she messed it up, there was every possibility she could re-open the door that had kept Buffy tied here. Undo the great thing that Buffy probably gave her life to do.

Because, if she were really honest with herself, she believed that they were gone. Especially now that she was really looking at the crater that used to be Sunnydale. The little voice inside of her told her that they were more than likely dead, and she was just holding onto a dream, instead of learning to deal with her grief, something she had a history of having a problem with.

"Willow?"

She blinked, looking up at Kennedy, who had spoken, and at the others who were looking at her in question.

"Sorry," she said, giving a somewhat sheepish smile, "I was just…lost in my thoughts."

She sighed, pushing back the doubts that were haunting her and spoke the words to the spell. She felt the wind that blew around her as she said the last word and then found herself again in a memory.

------

_She produces a small jar and pours it into the urn. Tara and Xander look nervous. Hiding her own nervousness from the group, she begins to speak._

"_Osiris, keeper of the gate, master of all fate, hear us." _

_She dips her finger into the urn and marks her forehead and both cheeks with the blood, ignoring the revulsion she still feels at her sacrifice of the fawn earlier that day. "It's for Buffy. I've got to save Buffy," has been her mantra through all of this and it will get her through this part as well._

"_Before time, and after. Before knowing and nothing." _

_She pours the contents of the urn onto the earth. _

"_Accept our offering. Know our prayer."_

_Suddenly she jerks backward, panting, and her arms go out at her sides. Deep ugly gashes appear on her arms. She wants to hide from the pain, she desperately wants to stop. She knew that she would be tested but, Goddess, was this supposed to happen? She can hear Xander yell, sounding as if he comes from a long distance away and Tara answering him, but she ignores them both. She focuses, shoring up her resolve, putting her thoughts and all her focus on Buffy. "I WILL get my friend back," she thinks and then continues._

"_Osiris! Here lies the warrior of the people. Let her cross over."_

_Oh sweet Hecate, the pain. The blood is running from the cuts on her arms, and round shapes are moving under her skin. She can't help the moan of pain that escapes from her. And there is something crawling inside of her, something moving and writhing and anxious to get out. She can feel it moving up her chest and it hurts, oh it hurts. _

_Xander speaks again, saying something about helping and this time she hears Tara's response. " Xander, she's strong! She said not to stop, no matter what. If we break the cycle now, it's over."_

"_Don't you dare!" she thinks to herself. She focuses her indomitable will on her friend again. She will not give into the pain. She will rescue her friend, she will be the savior this time and she will have her friend back and then the pain could end. _

_She yells it this time, determined that the Egyptian guardian of the underworld will hear her, will give her what she asks for. "Osiris, let her cross over! Aah.." she chokes, and suddenly can't breathe. The thing is in her throat and she can't breathe! What has she done?. _

_Tara's saying something, but she can't hear her, can't see her, the black is edging around her eyes and it's in her mouth and she can't help but bend over to the ground. Oh my god, oh my god, it has to come out. She lurches over, the feeling of needing to vomit overcoming her and suddenly the wiggling thing erupts out of her mouth, and somewhere in the back of her brain she realizes it's a snake and again the thought occurs to her, "What have I done, what have I done?!" But again, she focuses on Buffy. Damn it all, whatever she had done, she was getting her friend back!_

_She yanks herself back up, panting, hardly able to take in air, but the look in her eyes is resolved. "Osiris, release her!"_

_---Break---Flash---_

_She is disoriented for a moment as the memory suddenly changes. She can hear the others in the time that is real, as if from a long way away, asking if she is all right, calling her back. But she is lost in the memories and looks around to figure out when she is now. Once she realizes though, she wants to go back, doesn't want to see this moment again, doesn't want to feel it. Yet, the spell won't let her go and she has to live it to its end._

_She is standing with Giles and Tara and Anya and Xander looking up at a stage. On the stage stands a demon, Dawn, and her friend, who is looking at her with eyes that are fathomless in their sadness. She tries to back up, wants to leave… "please, please," she thinks, "don't make me hear this again, I don't want to hear it again." But the fates are not kind and the Slayer opens her mouth and sings the words that ripped Willow apart. The words she purposefully spent a year repressing, that she tried never to think about._

"_I think I was in heaven…"_

_And with that, the memory releases her._

-----

"NO!" Willow yelled, feeling the wrench as she was returned to the present. She could feel Kennedy next to her, holding her hand. She was talking, but Willow couldn't have said for the life of her what she was saying. She could feel the tears on her face, the ache in her body and in her soul. She shook her head and pushed away from Kennedy. She saw the faintly hurt look her girlfriend sent her but she couldn't deal with that right now, couldn't handle someone else's pain when hers was still a fresh, gaping wound.

"We can't do this."

All of them looked at her askance, surprised at her seemingly sudden about face.

Angel bent and took her arm, helping her stand up. "Willow, what memory did you see?"

She didn't look up, because to do so would have put her into eye contact with Giles and she could not look at him right now.

"Giles was right from the beginning. I didn't…I want them to be alive, I want Buffy to be all right. But we're kidding ourselves. Look at this place. And I won't do this to her again. I won't."

They all traded confused glances, even Giles looking taken aback by Willow's vehemence.

"Willow," Angel said again, squeezing her shoulder in comfort, "what did you see?"

She did look up then, and her eyes were so full of pain that it was shocking. "You want to know what I saw, do you really?" She locked eyes with Giles, because he was perhaps owed more explanation than any of them. "I saw the spell I did to bring her back the first time. I saw myself doing a spell to Osiris, a completely DARK spell to the god of the underworld to get my friend back. And then I saw that same friend, who I claimed to love, standing on a stage, with pain bleeding out of her soul, singing of how I had ripped her out of paradise!"

Her tears came in torrents now and she yanked her arm away from Angel. "I hated myself for what I did to her. I did everything I could to make it up, to make it better and it took her forever to recover from that. And yet, here I am, two years later, trying to do the same thing AGAIN." She turned then, unable to look at them anymore. There was silence, as each of them tried to deal with their own feelings and emotions and tried to come up with a way to comfort Willow, when there just didn't seem to be a way.

Finally, she spoke again, her voice softer, the anger gone, leaving only the pain behind. "I didn't want to accept it, you see? I kept telling myself, last time, that she was in a hell dimension, that we didn't know where that portal had sent her. But, I just didn't want to let her go."

She turned back to them then, the tears wet on her face but her eyes resolved. "I won't do that to her again. We have every reason to believe she's…dead," she forced the word past her throat, "and no reason to believe that she's not. Those memories…I think I was sent those memories and I think they are a message that we have to let them go. That it's their turn to rest. They deserve that, they've earned it."

They all looked at her and she could see they wanted to protest, Angel and Xander especially. She shook her head. "We've known this all along, guys. We've all spent the past week pushing back our doubts, ignoring all the things that say they're gone. Maybe…maybe this is why I could do the spell to awaken all the Slayers, when I had such trouble with all the other spells. Maybe it was so Buffy and Faith could finally...be at peace."

Angel looked at her for a moment and then looked away. He didn't like it, didn't want to agree, she could tell, but inside, he already thought she was right. The silence stretched between them again and this time it was Giles who broke it.

"I believe Willow is right. I have believed it since, well, since we left here the first time." His voice was broken and he reached up, took his glasses off, and wiped his own eyes. "Perhaps the time has come for us to let go."

Again, there was silence, several moments of them, and finally, one by one, they begin to nod.

This time, the long silence was broken by Dawn's excited shout. "Guys! Guys!" she yelled as she came running up to the group. "I know what happened to them, I know where they are!"

-----

_Several moments earlier…_

Dawn had been wandering for quite a bit now, and she was much farther away from the lighted areas than she really should be. She was lost in her thoughts and in her grief for the amount of loss that had been endured over the past couple of years. So, when she heard Willow's pain-filled shout, she was caught off guard and startled. Instantly, she whirled around to run back to the group, the habits formed from growing up in Sunnydale not easily forgotten. However, she lost her balance as she turned and fell hard on the ground. She felt the skin of her hand rip as it skidded across the dirt she had fallen on and felt a flash of pain in her head, before green surround her vision and suddenly, she saw…

_Light…it is bright and for a moment she is blinded by it. And then she sees its source, the amulet, in place around Spike's neck. She can see her sister now too, standing next to him. She can't hear what they're saying, the pounding in her ears is too loud for that. She glances around and sees Faith, standing on the stairs, practically dancing in impatience waiting for the blonde Slayer. Then she sees Buffy reach out for Spike's hand and she wants to warn her off, because somehow, she knows what's coming. But of course, she is a spectator here and she can't say anything. And Buffy clasps Spike's hand and suddenly the light is brighter than ever and Buffy and Faith are gone. Not dead, not disintegrated like the Turok Han, just suddenly gone._

_And suddenly she is somewhere else. And she can see what looks like an archway, only she's looking into the back side of it. The really bad part, though, is the group of horribly ugly demons that seem to be attempting to do something to the arch. And she knows, with a certainty she doesn't understand that it will be a Very Bad Thing if they accomplish whatever it is they are trying to do. There is a flash, but the demons don't seem to be happy with that and, though she has no clue what they're saying, the gist from their actions,and the sudden full out fight that starts up, seems to be that whatever they had been trying to do had failed._

_And she is moving again and she is standing on a plain or plateau of some kind and down in the valley below her she can see what looks like hundreds or maybe even thousands of demons. She blinks in fright and steps back, turning around to go the other way…and then she sees them and suddenly, she understands. The pieces come together and she moves to go to her sister's side, to explain that she knows and she'll be coming for them soon, but then she is moving again and then…_

She gasped, blinking her eyes in surprise to suddenly find herself back at the crater formerly known as Sunnydale. She pulled herself to her knees, ignoring the dirt and shook her head in an attempt to regain her bearings.

For a moment she just sat there, confused and uncertain by what had happened and by what she had seen. And then she was moving, long legs flying across the dirt back to where the others were. Some part of her brain observed, as she ran up to them, that they all looked sad or disheartened, but she was too excited to really pay attention.

""Guys! Guys! I know what happened to them, I know where they are!" she yelled.

"Dawnie? What…?" Willow looked at her in surprise and then her eyes widened in shock. "Oh my God, Dawn, what happened to your head?"

Dawn looked her in confusion. "My head? What are you talking about? I'm telling you, I know where Buffy is and, oh my God, Willow, you were right! They're in a hell dimension and there were all these demons and it was…"

"Dawn!" Giles' spoke firmly, cutting through her tirade as he moved towards her, his eyes concerned. And she turned to look at him and wobbled on her feet, her head suddenly throbbing and the world spinning around her.

"Whoa, earthquake," she said. Then she was falling and then all was black.

-------

Up next: What has the Gryiffindor Trio been up to all this time, anyway?

**Reveiwer Responses:**

phoenix83ad: There's definitely more to Ford than meets the eye and there's more to his involvement then even Buffy and the others can guess. And, I'm mean, so that's all I'm saying for a bit! :) Thanks for the review,I truly love getting one from you!

ztacel: Thanks so much for the review! I've never really thought of myself as creative, so that's a way cool compliment. Hope you like this chapter!

zayra: Thanks for reviewing and glad you liked the chapter! Hope this one was worth it too, especially since it was much longer in coming. :)

Padfoot and Moony: As always, I love your reviews! We'll be checking back in with Harry and the others in the next chapter, which I will try to get out in a week, instead of like...two months! sheepish look

WhiteWolf3: Yes really, who can one trust in hell? :) And, you know, I hadn't considered having Buffy blow up a hell dimension, but now that you mention it...wouldn't that be fun? :) Thanks for the review!

Sterling-Ag: Thanks for reviewing! Ford showing up kind of surprised me too, but once I thought about it, I really liked the idea. He's a tricky character and I think he has a few more twists and turns up his sleeve. ;)

angelus cado: Champion Industries is such a great story, isn't it? Arie's working on it right now, so I think we'll see an update before too long! Thanks for checking the story out and I'm glad you're liking it!

SiriusEarendil: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! I enjoy having these sudden "whoa, where did THAT come from" twists. Although, sometimes my muse surprises even me. :) Thanks for the review!

smurfinator: He is definitely a bastard, but we're not finished with Ford yet.He's got a few moresurprises in store!Thanks for the review!

Tanydwr: Thanks for the review, hope you liked the chapter!


	15. Where Do We Go From Here?

**Disclaimer: **You know the drill: the Potterverse belongs to Rowling and the Buffyverse belongs to Whedon. I'm just playingwith them for a time.

**Author's Notes: **I'm so very sorry for the long wait here guys. I could give you a long list of excuses, and they're good ones too, but who wants to spend the time, right? So, here's the chapter, over two years in the making. Also, I'm looking for a beta reader, someone who can help me work out my ideas for the rest of this story and make sure I stay on track. Anyone who wants to take up that overwhelming task, drop me a line! 

**Where Do We Go From Here?**

It had been a long week, and coming from Harry, who knew all about extremely long weeks due to his summers - and pre-Hogwarts life - with the Dursley's, that was saying something. The difference being, of course, that while not all parts of the past week had been "fun", none of them had been life-threatening or involved people who would as soon spit on him as look at him. Which, as far as Harry was concerned, was a step up.

They had spent much of their time in the Black library, which was still largely in shambles, though they'd managed to reduce the mess by almost half. They had found little on the Phasma Directus; a few mentions in old spell books and one supremely bad fiction novel where the main character got stuck as an astral being and couldn't get back to their natural body. That, however, was a plethora of information when compared to what they'd found on the Veil. The papers that he had found in the secret room had yet to yield anything about the Veil other than the two phrases noted in English on the side of them. One of the phrases read, "Veil is both opened and closed." Even Hermione, who was no slouch in the figuring things out department, had yet to come up with even an idea as to what that meant. The other phrase was easier to understand, yet far more alarming. It read, "deal with the devil and use the Veil." Harry did not think that it was a good sign to see the Veil connected with the devil, metaphorically speaking or not.

Harry sighed and turned over, giving his pillow a few punches in frustration. He was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to sleep tonight. Every night this week, he had been more than anxious to get to bed, having high hopes of seeing Sirius again and perhaps actually being able to talk with him for a few moments this time. However, when he did finally manage to fall asleep, it was only regular dreams that met him, with the only sign of Sirius being the nightmares where he watched his godfather fall through the Veil over and over again.

It would help, he knew, if he could talk to one of the adults about it. Remus, or Tonks, or even the older Weasley's who were in and out of 12 Grimmauld Place. But he had decided they couldn't let any of the adults know that they were investigating the Veil, after his one attempt to speak with Remus about it. It happened on the day Remus came to begin their training, the day after they had found the secret room.

_Earlier that week…_

By easily made mutual agreement, they had decided not to tell Molly Weasley about the secret room. Mrs. Weasley was a wonderful woman but she was freaked out enough about them digging around in the Black library. Were she to find out about the secret room with shelves and shelves of books on demons and how to contact them, well they were quite sure that'd be the last they saw of the Black library for a very long time indeed. She'd talk to Professor Dumbledore and they'd be reassigned as the official house cleaners of number 12 Grimmauld Place once again. Even Hermione didn't want that to happen. As much as the books in that room scared her, she wanted the chance to investigate them, to see if she could figure out what Voldemort had been up to in there.

Of course, this brought up the question of which person they should tell, which they found quite difficult to come to consensus on.

"I really think we should tell Professor Lupin," Hermione said, a worried look in her eyes. "I mean this is a really important discovery, Harry. There's all sorts of information in there and some of it could be very important to the Order."

Harry grit his teeth against the surge of anger that filled him at her words. He knew she was right, but he couldn't help but feel that it would be nice to turn the tables on them for once. Leave them in the dark about everything, as they had done to him last year. But, he had promised himself he would not take his anger out on his friends this year, as he had done the last year, so he swallowed the anger down. Meanwhile, the argument had continued around him.

"No way, Hermione!" Ron said, shaking his head. "They find out about this room and there is no way they'll let us back in here! They'll say its too dangerous and blather on and on about us being just children. No, I say we keep it to ourselves and find all the information we can and THEN we can bring in the others."

"Ron, we can't just keep this to ourselves! We can't! What if we release something accidentally? Or what if we dismiss something that's really important because we don't understand enough to realize it's important? We don't know everything; we have to tell someone!"

"Hermione, you can't tell me that you want them to start keeping you out of there? That you don't want the chance to read through and check out all those scrolls and books," Ron said, gesturing toward the hidden room.

"Of course I do, but Professor Dumbledore has made us members of the Order and that means we've got to act like adults, Ronald. We can't hide things from the other members just because we want to do things a certain way. We can't take advantage of the Headmaster's trust like that!" she replied, looking at him angrily.

As Ron responded back to her, and the argument continued, Harry sighed, running his fingers through his hair. He agreed with Ron, he didn't want to include the others. He didn't trust them not to keep them away from the room and hide things from him again. But, he also knew that Hermione had a point. They were being treated like adults at this point and that meant they had to act like adults. They had to work together if there was even the slightest chance of defeating Voldemort. A little voice in the back of his mind whispered that he really couldn't trust Dumbledore, but he ignored it. Maybe he didn't trust the old man with his life and happiness, but he knew that Dumbledore wanted to take down Voldemort and for the moment, that was enough. With that thought, he felt a strange flash of anger that felt almost as if it came from outside of himself and a twinge in his scar, but before he could wonder about it he was brought out of his musings by Ginny's yell.

"Hey! You two sound like an old married couple!" She ignored the glares they both sent her. "Why don't we agree on a compromise? We'll keep the knowledge of the room to ourselves for a week and search through it on our own, very carefully," she added, as Hermione began to protest," then, after the week's up, we'll inform Lupin or Bill or one of the others who come here to train us. If they keep us out of it after that, at least we'll have had some time to find out some information ourselves."

Hermione still looked like she wanted to protest, but after a moment she sighed. "Oh fine then, I suppose that's good enough."

Ginny nodded and turned to the boys. "Ron? Harry?"

They exchanged a look and then agreed. It was better than nothing.

And, agreement finally reached on that subject, and knowing that all the other Order members were currently preoccupied with their own tasks, they headed back into the secret room to do some more research. Harry had told them of the scrolls that mentioned the Veil and Hermione wanted to have a look at them and see if she could figure out anything from them. They spent the next several hours in the room, digging through the books and scrolls, but being very careful not to read anything aloud, especially after Hermione had mentioned that, at least in Muggle movies, it was possible to summon a demon just by reading a magical text out loud. "I'm sure its not really true," she'd said, her expression slightly fearful, "but I'd rather not take the chance all the same."

After hours of searching, however, they'd come away with nothing but a sense of dread about the demons mentioned in the books. As they made their way out of the room and back into the Black library, Hermione spoke up. "Harry, I'm wondering if you shouldn't ask Professor Lupin what he knows about the Veil?"

Harry blinked at her in shock before shaking his head violently. "Are you kidding? I'm sure that'd go over just great, Hermione! Oh, hey, Remus, sorry about your last still good best friend who just died; could you tell me about that big curtain he fell through? Why? Oh, nothing much, I just happen to be having dreams that he's still alive and stuck in some hell dimension. No really, I'm not crazy at all!" Harry sent her a glare. "I'd really prefer not to have the last link to my parents and Sirius think I'm a nutcase if it's all the same to you!"

Hurt flashed across her face at his tone with annoyance quickly following in its wake. "Well, I certainly wasn't suggesting you ask like that, Harry James Potter! But, Remus stopped you from following Sirius through the Veil, so he obviously knows something about it and maybe he could give us something to build from." She sent her own glare at him. "I was under the impression you were willing to do anything to find out about Sirius. And, I wasn't suggesting you tell him about the dreams, but he won't be suspicious if you tell him you've just been thinking about Sirius quite a bit and need to understand about the Veil."

Harry blinked at her and then sighed, an apologetic look crossing his tired features. "I know, I know. I'm sorry, Hermione, I just…" he trailed off, not quite sure what to say.

Her look softened at his apology and she laid a hand on his arm. "I know Harry, I know you're frustrated. But, we need a direction of some sort at least. We need to know more and Professor Lupin may just have the answers we need."

Harry grimaced slightly again at the thought of asking Remus about the Veil, but then shrugged and sent her a small smile. "Well, you're right. I am willing to do anything to help Sirius, even have Moony thinking I've finally really gone round the bend. I'll ask him tomorrow when he comes."

Hermione smiled back and they separated into their rooms to wash for dinner.

It was every bit as hard as Harry expected it to be to broach the subject of the Veil with Remus the next day. Harry could tell that the werewolf was struggling as much with the loss of Sirius as Harry himself was, only Remus didn't have Harry's hope that Sirius was in fact still alive. The sadness in Remus' eyes hit Harry hard and he wrestled with the guilt that ate at him.

"Well," the werewolf said, as he entered the study they were to be doing their training in, finding them all ready and waiting for him. "I guess I won't have to be pushing you four to practice, will I then?"

The all gave him grins and then, as if they were in class again, Hermione's hand hit the air. Remus hid a smile as he looked her way. "We're not in class, Hermione, and there's no need to raise your hand."

Hermione blushed, lowering her hand. "Sorry Professor," she said, sheepishly.

"Ah," he said, "and that then, will be our first order of business. I haven't been your professor in quite a while now, so I must insist that you all call me Remus." Ron and Ginny both grinned, nodding their heads, while Hermione looked doubtful that this was a request that she could follow, but she gave him a nod anyway.

"Now, Hermione, did you have a question?"

"Yes, Prof…I mean, Remus. I wondered, how will we be able to practice magic, since all of us are underage?"

"That is a very good question, Hermione. You four are very lucky to be discovering one of those tricky ministry secrets, which of course all of us trust you not to misuse or abuse. How do you think the ministry tracks the use of underage magic use?"

Harry, Ron, and Ginny all looked immediately at Hermione, who surprised them all by not knowing the answer to that question. When they looked at her in shock, she rolled her eyes, saying, "I really DON'T know everything you know."

Ron blinked at Harry and said in undertone, "Do you think that might be a sign of the end of the world?"

Harry hid his grin and Remus answered his own question. "It's all right, the ministry works very hard to make sure underage witches and wizards don't know the answer to that question. The truth is it is virtually impossible for the ministry to track magic done in a wizarding home. Take Grimmauld Place, for example," Remus said, waving his hand around at the room. "There is magic in the very walls of this place, along with numerous witches and wizards using magic in here. How would they know whether a spell had been done by someone underage or not?"

"Of course!" Hermione said, as usual picking up on where he was going very quickly. "But, in a Muggle home, they'd know immediately that the magic done was very likely that of the underage witch or wizard. They must rely on the parents of wizarding children to take care of any underage magic done by their own children." She frowned then. "Which is really completely unfair for those of us who are muggleborn or raised, you know."

Harry nodded his head and spoke up. "Well that explains why I got blamed for Dobby doing magic at the Dursley's back in second year. I always wondered about that."

Remus smiled at them and nodded. "Yes, very well done, both of you. So, here in this house, you could use quite a bit of magic, and no one from the ministry would ever know it. But, of course, we would request that you restrict your use of magic to this training time. In many ways, it is good for young witches and wizards to have to learn to do many things without magic while they are young. But, that is a theoretical discussion for another day."

He stood up then and motioned them to spread out. They then begin what was, in many ways, like a highly personalized and advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Remus began with shield spells, but was quickly surprised to learn how well they already did at those. He had known about the DA, of course, but he hadn't realized how well they had done with those lessons. He sent a smile Harry's way.

"Very well done, Harry. Perhaps you should consider teaching as a possible future profession."

Harry blushed slightly at the praise, and gave a nonchalant shrug, but was pleased at the compliment. He had been incredibly proud of the DA and their accomplishments.

After that, Remus moved on to some more complicated Defense spells and they spent several hours working on getting them just right.

It was when they broke for lunch, and Remus stayed back to gather his books and put the room to right that Hermione motioned to Harry about talking to Remus. Harry sighed slightly, but moved to do as she suggested, wondering how exactly he was to broach this subject. How did one ask questions about the device that had brought about another person's death?

Remus looked up at him as he moved over to his side. "Did you need something, Harry?"

"Yes," he said, swallowing the nervous lump in his throat with difficulty. "I was…well, I was hoping I could ask you a couple questions about something?"

Remus looked vaguely uncomfortable at this, but nodded his head at Harry. "You may ask me anything you'd like, Harry, of course."

Harry took a deep breath then and, gathering his courage, looked his old teacher in the eye. "I wanted to ask about the Veil." He thought his heart might break at the pain that flashed across the older man's face. And then he watched as his face closed down.

"I can't imagine what I could tell you about that, Harry. There is really very little known about it, and I know even less than that." He waved his wand quickly, straightening the room back, though the jerky movements were telltale signs of his desire to stop the conversation as quickly as possible.

"I know that, well I know it's hard to…" Harry sighed as he struggled to find the words to say. "I miss him, Remus," the boy finished quietly, "I just want to understand."

The werewolf's face softened at this quiet, and heartfelt, admission, and he sighed as well, running a hand down his face. "I know, Harry. I know that you do. I just, I really don't know a lot about the Veil." He gave a laugh then, one that had no humor to it. "Funnily enough Harry, the person who knew more about the Veil than anyone, was your mother."

Harry blinked at Remus, mouth hanging open in shock.

Remus nodded, a half grin on his face at Harry's surprise. "Your mother worked at the Department of Mysteries for a time, before your parents went into hiding. Of course, she really couldn't tell us much about what she did, but she did say once that she was studying the Veil. She was quite intrigued by it. I remember James dragging her away from her notes several times to come and join us all for dinner." He gave Harry a small smile. "She was quite like Hermione in that respect, she was very focused when she got interested in something."

He sat for a moment, as if lost in the memory of what once was, and then shook himself slightly. "In any case, Harry. I really don't have any answers for you and I…" he trailed off, looking away. "Will you think less of me, Harry, if I told you that I just really didn't want to talk about it?"

Harry shook his head. "No," he said, his voice hoarse with the emotions he was trying to hide. It surprised him that he suddenly missed his mother, a woman he had very little memory of, so very much. He wished he could've known her, as Remus had. "Of course not, Remus, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have…I mean, I understand." He gave the man a semi-awkward pat on the shoulder and turned and walked out of the room.

Hermione wasn't going to be very happy, he knew, but he wouldn't push his parent's old friend any on this one. "I think I've caused him plenty of pain, already, he shouldn't have to deal with anymore," he thought, bitterly.

With a sigh, he made his way to the kitchen, where he was sure to find the others. They all seemed to be waiting on him, as they looked up the second he walked into the room.

"Did he know anything, Harry?" Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head, serving himself food he wasn't hungry for in order to avoid their eyes.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "I mean, what exactly did he say? Maybe it doesn't seem important, but it could really…"

And Harry, who had for weeks vacillated between deep grief and terrible anger, who had seen the pain in Remus Lupin's eyes, who, in spite of hope that Sirius was alive, still had dreams where he watched him fall through the Veil, lost his temper.

"Damn it, Hermione, don't you ever quit?!" He stood then, throwing the fork he had only just picked up on to the table so hard that it bounced when it hit and flew across the room. "He didn't know anything, all right? And, he didn't want to talk about it, either! If you want to go back and in there and ask the man who has just lost the last best friend he had to suffer through it all again while he satisfies your every curiosity about something he doesn't really know anything about, then by all means, go for it! But don't ask me to go back in there, don't ask me to put him through that again!"

Hermione stared at him, mouth opened in shock and tears shining in her eyes. Ron also looked shocked and worried. He looked between his two best friends, as if unsure exactly how to respond to the situation.

Ginny stood up and crossed the room, putting herself right in front of where Harry stood, his hands clenched and face tight with anger. She looked fairly angry herself, but her voice was even when she spoke.

"Don't you dare take your anger out on us, Harry Potter. We're doing everything we can to help you out, to be there for you. You don't want to talk to Remus, fine, I can understand that. But you can bloody well take your attitude and temper elsewhere. We don't deserve that and you know it."

For a moment, Harry and Ginny faced off, both angry and neither backing down. And then Mrs. Weasley came bustling into the kitchen.

"Goodness, what is going on in here? I could hear you yelling all the way up the stairs! If you don't quiet down, you'll wake the portrait and I don't think any of us want that. Come on then, Ginny, Harry, sit down, eat your lunch."

Quiet choruses of, "Yes, Mum" and "Sorry, Mrs. Weasley" rang out from the group and Harry and Ginny retook their seats, each avoiding the others' eyes. Mrs. Weasley watched them for a few moments and then, sighing slightly, returned upstairs.

For several minutes, there was complete silence in the kitchen. None of them wanted to be the first to speak.

Finally, Hermione spoke up, her voice quiet and apologetic. "I'm really sorry, Harry. I wasn't…I mean, I didn't mean…" she trailed off, as if unsure how to finish.

Harry, who had been sitting with his head in his hands looked up at her then, his face sorrowful. "No," he sighed. "No, Ginny's right. I'm not being fair. Sorry Hermione, I don't need to be taking this out on you, any of you," he said, glancing over at Ginny, who gave him a nod and a small smile in acceptance of his apology. "I just…we can't share this with the adults. I'm sorry, Hermione, because this is going to make things doubly hard on you, I think, but either they will tell us we're wasting our time studying the Veil, or they'll be like Remus and have a hard time talking about it at all. I think…I think we're on our own on this one."

Hermione didn't look like she agreed with him, but she nodded all the same.

Harry looked back down at the table, studying his glass as if perhaps, hidden somewhere in the pumpkin juice, he might find the answers to so many of his questions. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet. "He said my mum would've known more. That she worked on the Veil. She worked for the Department of Mysteries. He said…" his voice hitched slightly and he prayed that they didn't realize how close he was to a complete breakdown. "He said that my dad used to have to drag her away from her notes on it so that she could eat."

Ron raised his eyebrows at that and muttered, "Completely barmy, that."

Harry and Ginny exchanged a grin, the tension that had sat heavy in the room abating slightly.

"Harry," Hermione spoke up, a thoughtful expression on her face, "where do you think those notes went?"

Harry looked confused. "Huh?"

She looked at him then, her expression intense. "The notes your Mum was studying about the Veil. If she worked for the Department of Mysteries, then those notes had to be protected somehow. They'd have never been let out of the Department otherwise."

Ron shook his head and interrupted, saying, "How do you know these things?"

Hermione shot him a glare. "I read, Ronald, something you might try once in a while. In any case, those notes would be of great help to us. From what Remus told you, your Mum knew quite a bit about it. But, I can't imagine where those notes would've ended up. They'd probably be back at the Ministry I suppose."

"Well, not necessarily," Ginny spoke up. "Did your parents leave you a vault key, Harry?"

Harry looked at her, his expression puzzled. "Well yeah, but its only got money in it. I've never seen anything else in there."

Ginny shook her head. "No Harry, that's your vault, no doubt set aside as a trust for your education. I mean the Potter Family vault."

Harry looked even more confused, but Hermione was nodding excitedly. "Of course, if she had any notes, she might very well have copied them and put them in the main vault when they went into hiding. There's no where they'd be safer than at Gringotts!"

"Hang on a minute," Harry said. "What do you mean the Potter Family Vault?"

All three of them looked at him in shock and disbelief. "Surely you know about the old family vaults, mate?" Ron asked, surprised.

Harry was rapidly loosing his patience with them and answered sharply. "If I did, do you think I'd be asking what the bloody hell you're talking about right now?"

"I'm sorry, Harry," Ginny spoke up, shaking her head. "I forget sometimes the things you don't know about the Wizarding world that are completely commonplace to us."

Hermione nodded, "I read about the old family vaults, but I…well Harry I just expected that Dumbledore or Sirius had already told you about them."

In a voice filled with frustration, Harry replied, "Well, add that to the long list of things that people keep hiding from me. So, what about these vaults, then?"

"Well, there's sort of a hierarchy to the Wizarding world, Harry. Much of it is built on the old wizarding families, who can trace their lines back numerous generations. A few of these old families are names only now, such as the McGonagall's, who have very little money or property left, but whose family line can be traced almost back to the time of the Hogwarts founders. But, a large number of these old families are wealthy, incredibly so and they are, or were, the movers and shakers of the wizarding world. And the Potters were one of those families."

Harry blinked at her, trying to process all this information. This just didn't make sense. "Why wouldn't anyone have told me about this vault? And, would it even be possible to access it, assuming I do have one?"

Hermione shrugged. "I don't know why they wouldn't tell you, Harry, but there's no doubt you do have one."

Harry shook his head and couldn't help the short laugh that escaped him. "Hermione, you really do know more about me than I do."

She smiled at him somewhat sheepishly and continued, "As for whether or not you could get into it, that shouldn't be a problem. By current law, you can't pull money from the account until you turn 17. However, you do have the right to examine the vault and to take any personal, non-valuable items contained therein. So, if the paperwork was there, you could get it. However, you'd have to have a key and the one for your trust vault wouldn't work. We have to figure out where your mum and dad's key went."

Here Hermione paused and looked apologetically at Harry. "I hate to say it Harry, but I think you're going to have to ask Prof…I mean, Remus, a few more questions." At Harry's aghast look, she held up her hand. "Not about the Veil, Harry, but about the Potter vault. You could say we stumbled across some information about family vaults while looking up information or that I mentioned it or something and then ask about your vault and see if he knows what happened to your parent's key."

Harry sighed and grimaced at the thought of another heart-to-heart with Remus. "Alright, but he won't be back until next week. We've got Moody, Tonks, and Kingsely for training the rest of this week. I'll ask him as soon as I can."

They all nodded and moved into the library to continue their combined job of putting it to rights and finding information on either the Phasma Directus or the Veil, along with investigating the secret room.

And so they had continued throughout the week, their mornings spent in training with one Order member or another and their afternoons spent pouring through the texts in the library and the secret room, looking for information on the Phasma Directus or the Veil, and having little luck with either.

Harry turned again in his bed, shaking off the thoughts of the past week. He needed to sleep, not just so that he could possibly communicate with Sirius, but also because he needed some rest. But he couldn't seem to get his mind to stop mulling over the Veil.

He had numerous questions about it, what it did being only the most obvious of them. How long had it been in the ministry? Why did they keep it there? And then, there were the questions about his dreams. That he had a strange connection with Voldemort that allowed him to see inside his mind made sense, in a strange and terrifying sort of way. His scar linked them. However, if his dreams had been real, how had it happened? How had he been connected to wherever Sirius was?

And of course, then there was the question of how he was supposed to approach Remus the next day, not only with the questions about his family vault but also with info about the secret room. And what were the chances that his mum had put copies of her work in the vault, really, even if they could find some way to get into it. And then there was the secret worry he was carrying around, the one he hadn't even shared with his friends. Well, two actually, if you counted the Prophecy, but he was doing his level best to completely forget about that. He just couldn't deal with that right now. No, the thing that was really worrying him, was where was Voldemort? He hadn't had so much as flicker of pain in his scar at all. Little twinges every now and again, but no pain, no idea of Voldemort's emotions, and no dreams as to what he was doing or who he was torturing now, not since the Department of Mysteries. Voldemort had actually managed to possess him in the Department, so why wasn't he trying now? Why was he just leaving him alone? He should feel glad that he wasn't being dragged into Voldemort's mind anymore or subject to any false visions, but he couldn't help but feel that this was just the calm before the storm; that the dark wizard was up to something. The thought that Voldemort might try to use him against the people he cared about was Harry's darkest and deepest fear.

Groaning softly to himself, he finally gave up, pulling himself up and grabbing a shirt as he quietly made his way out the door. Maybe a drink would settle him down enough so that he could get some sleep. He crept quietly down the stairs towards the kitchen, not wanting to wake the household or worse, Mrs. Black. Because it was so late, he was surprised to hear the murmur of voices coming from the kitchen. He sighed to himself and turned to head back up the stairs when he heard his name. He immediately spun back, creeping silently closer to the kitchen.

"…you noticed anything different about Harry?" He heard Bill Weasley ask.

"Nothing obvious, nothing that couldn't be explained away," Mrs. Weasley spoke. "He's quieter, I think. His temper is still short, though not as much as last year. I heard him and Ginny yelling at each other earlier this week, though I couldn't make out exactly what it was about. But nothing that couldn't be as a result of the loss of…well, his loss."

"What about those of you doing the training? Have you noticed any personality changes or odd behavior?"

Harry felt the anger well up in him at the sound of Dumbledore's voice, blocking out the response. What the **hell** were they on about? Still keeping secrets from him, not telling him everything. So much for complete honesty, for the vaunted Dumbledore's word. He was moving forward, planning to give everyone of them a piece of his mind, when a hand on his arm stopped him. He blinked in shock, his wand in his hand and coming up to curse, when he saw that it was Ginny. She shook her head at him and motioned with a finger to her lips for him to remain quiet. He grit his teeth, but did as she motioned.

"…definitely make a good Auror, assuming this all works out right," Kingsely was saying. "He's already got the moves. But, the group of them is definitely keeping some secrets, I think. Conversations have stopped when I've entered the room, stuff like that. But, I haven't seen anything to make me suspect Harry's being possessed."

It felt like Harry's blood had turned to freezing water at these words. He couldn't breathe. They suspected Voldemort might take him over too. His worst fears were no longer secret nightmares, but suddenly far more real and possible, voiced by those who he cared about, by the few adults he trusted. He barely felt Ginny grabbing his arm, leading him back up the stairs and then up another flight to Sirius' old room. He felt so lost at that moment that he couldn't even feel the loss of Sirius – just the fear of what he might become.

Ginny touched his shoulder. "Harry?"

"You shouldn't be near me. No one should. I'm dangerous, just like they said. Its not safe." His voice was dead, as if any emotion was just too much at that moment.

Ginny shook her head. "What utter rot, Harry. Didn't we go over this last year when you thought you were being possessed?"

Harry laughed, a horrible sound with no humor. "That was before he actually did possess me at the Department of Mysteries. And Ginny, I didn't forget anything. I didn't black out. He was just there and I couldn't do anything about. Nothing at all. He could come back at any minute, Gin. That's what they're afraid of, that's why they're talking about me and watching me. Because they know I could be used to h-hurt one of you or t-the order." And suddenly he wished for the numbness to return, because now he felt the fear and the pain and the loneliness of what he was, who he was. "You shouldn't be near me. All of you should run as fast and as far as you can away from me."

For a few beats, there was silence and he waited to hear the rustle of cloth as she did as he asked, as she got out of harm's way and away from him. And then she spoke.

"Harry, why'd you come down to the Chamber for me?"

He blinked, confused by this sudden shift in topics and looked up at her. "What?"

She stood by the window and she didn't look at him as she answered. "You barely knew me, had no idea what could happen down in that chamber, and yet you came after me anyway. Why?"

"I wasn't going to leave you down there to die, Gin," he said, his face still showing his confusion at this line of questioning.

She nodded slightly, still looking away. "And if it were to happen again? If Tom were to somehow manage to get a hold of me, or Ron, or Hermione, and force us down there, would you come after us again?"

He shook his head, wondering if maybe she'd just gone completely barmy and he'd missed it. "Of course I would. I'd do whatever I had to, to keep all of you safe."

She turned to him then, meeting his eyes, her face resolute and her eyes blazing. "Do you think we are less brave than you? Or less capable? Do you think we love you less than you do us?"

He was stunned by the vehemence in her tone and could only shake his head and move his mouth, attempting to come up with something to say in response. She moved towards him then, coming to a stop in front of his chair.

"Maybe he will try to possess you. And if he does, then we will come after you, just as you would for us. That's what friendship is, Harry. That's what love is. And friendship and love are the very things Tom doesn't understand. Those are what separate the two of you. In the end, you are better than Tom, not because of your magical ability and not because you're some amazing wizard, but because you still hope and love, and he doesn't even comprehend this. We're going to be right beside you, every step of this bloody war and we're going to be there to save you when you fall, just like you do for us."

He was speechless, unable to push any words at all past the lump in his throat; moved beyond measure at her words, but terrified for her and her family all the same. She moved again, kneeling down in front of his chair, putting herself at eye level with him.

"If you think, for even one second that we would let you push us away, then you obviously haven't really gotten to know the Weasley's. We're here for the long haul, Harry. That's all there is to it." Her eyes, boring into his, seemed to harden. "And besides, you're not the only who has a score to settle with Voldemort. So, no more talk about us getting away from you, because you're wasting your time. It's not even in the realm of possibilities. You aren't alone, Harry."

For a moment, they just stared at each other, and then he sighed slightly, his mouth quirking up in the smallest of smiles, and he nodded. He did know the Weasley's, and what they didn't have in money or status, they more than made up for in bravery, honor, and sheer stubbornness. She gave him a small smile back, her stance relaxing slightly.

"Good, I'm glad we got that settled," she said, giving him a nod. She started to move, when his hand touched her face, lightly, just barely brushing across her cheek. She stopped, looking at him. He blushed slightly, but met her eyes. "Thanks, Gin."

She smiled at him, blushing slightly herself. "Any time, Harry." She stood then, pulling away before he could see the effect his touch had on her. Damn, every time she thought she'd gotten over him. She sighed and looked back at him, ignoring the strange look he had on his face as he looked at her.

"Well, do you think you can sleep now?" she asked.

He started to say no, when he realized how exhausted he was. Finding out that being re-possessed by Voldemort had moved from nightmare into the realm of very real possibility had done a number on him.

"I think so, yeah," he said, somewhat shyly.

"Good," she said, "Go get some rest. Lots to do tomorrow."

He nodded, feeling a slightly odd feeling towards her he couldn't quite place and more than a little awkward.

"Sleep well, Gin," he said, blushing again for some reason he couldn't fathom.

She smiled at him. "You too, Harry."

He turned and made his way back to his room quickly, settling back in his bed. He couldn't help but feel a warm sense of belonging now, after the conversation with Ginny, and seeing Ron snoring softly in the bed next to him just reinforced that feeling. Despite what the Malfoy's and Riddle's of the world thought, blood really didn't matter at all. Not a lot had changed for him, except for the knowledge that he wasn't alone. For the moment, that was enough. Finally, he slept.


	16. Hell Hath No Fury

Disclaimer: All things Potter are owned by Rowling and Buffy are owned by Whedon. I own nothing and am totally not worth sueing. Just saying.

Author's Notes: Yes, I know, I am horrible. It's been 3 years. To be honest, I thought this thing was dead, when my muse up and ran off to Tahiti with her Latin lover. Or maybe that was just a book I read. Anyway, real life had made me its minion and I was a slave to its will. And then my daughter found out about this story, read it, and declared that I would have no life until I started working on it again. And to be quite honest, she's a little scary. And also, a freaking slave driver! Seriously, the chapter's creation and my desire (and love) of writing again is all owed to her (along with several concepts in this chapter and chapters to come). All the praise should go to her - thanks baby girl!

Reviews are welcome as always! And now, on to our regularly scheduled programming...

**Hell Hath No Fury**

Buffy would be the first to admit that, as far as plans went, it wasn't the best she had ever come up with.

"But," she told Faith, "all our plans tend to blow up anyway, so it has as good a chance to work as any."

The plan was simple: Faith would play siren to Ford's sailor. At best, she could figure out what his real game plan was; at worst, she could keep him distracted while they figured out what steps to take next. Meanwhile, Buffy and Sirius would begin attempting to map out Ford's tunnel system and talking with Ford's group to find out everything they could about the city's layout and this machine they would need to destroy.

"You don't think he might be more likely to open up to you, considering your history?" Sirius asked Buffy.

"No way." She said, shaking her head, "First of all, he knows I'm highly unlikely to fully trust him after what happened before. "

Sirius nodded, that made sense. "And second?"

Buffy shrugged, "Faith's better at…distraction."

Faith stretched languidly and sent a heated grin Sirius' way. "What can I say, I've got skills."

Sirius blinked, swallowed hard, and shifted slightly in his chair as he turned back to Buffy.

"Point in case" she said, shaking her head amusedly.

"Sides, we've got to figure they know at least something of what's gone on up top. They're likely to think I can be convinced to help them out or turned to the dark side or whatever," Faith said, a dark look of regret passing over her features and bringing a more serious tone to the discussion.

Buffy looked pained and sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean…" she trailed off, unsure how to finish that, because in truth, that was part of why she had suggested it as well. If Ford had heard about Faith, he was likely to think that she was like him, focused only on what could be gotten out of a situation, which was something Faith could use against him. But, Buffy couldn't help but feel bad for putting Faith in this sort of situation, reminding her of what had gone on before.

But Faith simply waved it off, shaking her head. "S'all right, B. We both know it's the truth."

Buffy caught Faith's eye, looking at her squarely. "I know it's the truth they will think that. I also know it's the truth they'll think wrong."

Faith looked back at Buffy, reading the absolute truth in her gaze. Buffy trusted her, which was surprising after all that had happened. Faith gave Buffy a nod and a half smile, which Buffy returned.

Sirius looked from Buffy to Faith and back again, before finally saying, "I don't suppose either of you want to let me know what the subtext in the room is all about?"

Buffy just shrugged and said, "Ancient history. We all good with the plan?"

Sirius frowned at the blonde, but let it go. This really wasn't the time anyway.

Faith wasted little time in putting the plan into action, sauntering up to Ford when he returned and quickly capturing his attention. Over the next several days, she was rarely far from his side and it was obvious she was doing her job well as Ford seemed greatly enraptured with her.

Buffy and Sirius meanwhile moved carefully around the base and sewer system, memorizing entrances and exits, circumspectly asking questions about the city and the demons from the various people tasked with showing them around (which Buffy had pretty much translated as Ford-speak for guarding them). They were beginning to gather good information, but it was slow going, which was driving Sirius half-mad. This wasn't the way he did things – he really was a "John Wayne" sort of guy (and he would really have to get Buffy and Faith to introduce him to this John Wayne person; he thought they would get along famously). He was ready to get things moving and get to the part where he got back to his godson. In the few quiet moments they had, he would sometimes daydream about Harry's face when they finally managed to get out of here (and he refused to think that they wouldn't find a way).

Those were the times when he got the most impatient, when the sitting and listening and waiting reminded him too much of being trapped in Grimmauld Place and he would get irritable and short-tempered, pestering Buffy about the next steps. Generally, she would try to remind him of the plan and that this had to be done right, not just rushed through. Most of the time though, they would end up in what passed for the athletics room, where Buffy, or Faith, those times when Ford was tied up with something else, would show him martial arts moves and what they called "katas." These tended to end up as sparring matches, which mostly involved him getting his arse well and truly kicked. However, he always felt better when they were done, as if the feeling of restlessness and the walls closing in was manageable again.

Several weeks passed in this manner, with little changing and even less for them to DO.

"Patrols are out in force, looking for you guys right now," Ford would say, when they pressed him for information, "we just can't chance them catching one of you." Then he would move along, claiming important things to be done. He never spent very long around Buffy or Sirius, which they both agreed was a sign that he was hiding something, so they were lucky that he seemed to fall for Faith's distraction hook, line and sinker. Faith had confirmed that she was even more sure that Ford was up to something, but even her best skills at persuasion hadn't resulted in any real answers as of yet. And Ford was being incredibly tight-lipped about his "contact" in the demon hierarchy.

Buffy and Sirius played their roles as well, generally acting suspicious of Ford (which wasn't hard to pull off at all) and irritated with Faith for the time she spent "fraternizing with the enemy" (which had been said in a hushed, but heated conversation between the two Slayers, carefully staged to be witnessed by some of Ford's men).

All the sneaking around and waiting, trying to find answers without tipping their hand had given Sirius an appreciation, however unwelcome, for Snape's ability as a spy. He had no idea how the man had done this for years on end. "Assuming, of course, that Dumbledore was right in trusting him and he wasn't actually still part of Voldemort's circle," Sirius thought, darkly. However, he knew he was close to losing it completely if something didn't happen soon.

It was two days further when Faith came sneaking into the room (more accurately described as a closet) that Buffy and Sirius had laid their borrowed sleeping bags in.

"B – wake up!" Faith said, careful not to shut the door (the guards always came by and opened it," just checking that everything's ok, m'am," when it was closed) and to stay in the shadows where she wouldn't be quickly noticed.

Buffy and Sirius were instantly awake and aware, as neither were particularly hard sleepers, especially not here when it was likely that a moment of distraction could mean they missed something important. "Constant Vigilance!" Sirius had barked at one point when it came up in discussion and then just grinned when Buffy had looked at him as if he'd gone completely mental.

"Something's going down soon," Faith said, with little preamble. "Ford just left outta here in a hurry. Before he left he told me he thought he finally had something and then grabbed my hand and told me not to worry, that he'd 'take care of me.'" The last part was said with air quotes and the disgust on her face let them know exactly what she thought of being "taken care of." "I don't know how much time we have left before he sets off whatever he's got going. I'm thinking we should check the hole he calls his office now while we have a chance."

They quickly got up and gathered their meager belongings (mainly their weapons), before gathering close to the door to look around.

"How exactly are the three of us supposed to sneak past all our friendly escorts and get to his office?" Buffy asked, glancing out at the guards gathered at the end of the hall. While the passageways were not greatly lit, they were lit enough that the guards would notice the three of them trying to get past. And if they just walked out there, the guards would follow them wherever they went, making it hard to so much as go to the bathroom, much less sneak into Ford's private, no one allowed in office. And this had to be carefully done – they couldn't take the chance of just taking out all the guards until they were absolutely sure they had to. Once they did that, they would have to head out into the city to make their move, and they just didn't have enough information yet. She looked over at Sirius, "I don't suppose you know a spell to make us all invisible?"

"Uh, no. Well, I mean yes, but none I can do without a wand," he answered, somewhat hesitantly. "But, I do know something might help as a distraction for the sneaking around."

They both looked at him expectantly. He sighed, unsure how they would take his ability as an Animagus. Or rather, the fact that he hadn't mentioned it before now. It wasn't that he didn't trust them, because he did, with his life. But, his ability to transform had been a major secret for the full time that he'd had the ability and the fact that it was a secret had literally saved his life and sanity while he was in Azkaban. It wasn't something he shared with anyone easily.

"Yo, earth to Black!" Faith hissed, bringing his attention back to them.

"Right. Sorry. See, I have this ability to transform my body. It's a magic we call an Animagus transformation. It lets the caster change their form to that of an animal."

Both girls were looking at him in surprise now. "You didn't think this might be helpful to know before now?" Faith asked, frowning at him.

"Yes, I know, I should have told you, but I…" he trailed off, unable to fully explain to them that it was a secret that was kept, only to be shared with those he most trusted (or was forced to, such as with the members of the Order).

Buffy waved her hand slightly, shaking her head. "It doesn't matter now," she said. "So this, Animorphas thingy – it means you can change into what, exactly?"

He grinned slightly and let the transformation happen, molding down into Padfoot's form. Both girls were staring at him in shock now, mouths hanging open.

"Woah. Now that's impressive," Buffy said, blinking at the dog in surprise.

Faith shook her head. "Brings all new meaning to the saying 'men are dogs'."

Sirius chuffed quietly at that and sent Faith an all too human glare, before shifting back into human form.

"So, I figure I can lure them away. In dog form I can slip past them and come from the other side, so they won't associate the distraction with us right away. Then once I have them after me, I slip into one of those crevices we mapped out, hide until they go past, and sneak back to the study – what do you think?" He asked, bouncing slightly in excitement that things were finally moving forward.

"You're assuming they won't just spear you to death and leave your body to rot?" Buffy asked, her expression dubious.

"I'm faster than I look, especially as Padfoot. I can do this." Sirius responded, somewhat mullishly.

Faith blinked. "Your dog name is Padfoot? Really?"

Sirius sent a scowl her way. "Hey, I was a kid when I named myself, yeah? And I happen to like that name!"

Faith raised both hands in surrender at his defensive tone, hiding a grin, while Buffy sighed. "Enough, children. Let's focus here, shall we? Are you sure about this Sirius? We can't chance them realizing what we're doing and if you get hurt, we won't be in a position to help you." Her face was worried as she looked at him. She didn't like this plan at all, but she couldn't think of another way for them to get past the collection of guards at the end of the hall, without causing a huge ruckus that brought all the guards their way.

Sirius nodded at her, his expression firm. "I can do this. I won't let you down."

At Buffy's still hesitant look Faith chimed in. "I'm not seeing that we have a lot of choice, B."

Buffy sighed, running a hand over her face. "All right," she said, and then grabbed Sirius by the arm as he grinned and prepared to shift. "I will be very angry at you if you get yourself killed. All of us get out of here, all right?"

He nodded again, his eyes serious and reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "I'll meet you at the study, promise."

She returned his nod and let go. He gave her a quick smile, transformed and moved out the door and into the shadow of the hall, almost belly crawling on the ground. The lights in the hallway sat across the top of the walls, illuminating about 3 quarters down the wall going down the hall. There was no way the three of them could have stooped low enough to sneak past the guards (Faith had barely made it alone), but Sirius' smaller height and dark color as a canine meant he blended far more easily into the shadows. Having four legs also made it easier for him to stay closer to the ground. And since the guards would not know to associate the black dog with the 3 of them, they wouldn't know to look in on them, giving them time to get to Ford's office and hopefully look around. Assuming Sirius, or rather Padfoot, was actually able to get past them of course.

She and Faith watched, tensed and ready as Sirius slowly made his way down the hall. She caught herself holding her breath as he got close to where the guards were gathered and forced herself to let the air out slowly. "Get a hold of yourself!" she thought firmly. "You need to be ready to fight, not passing out from lack of oxygen."

Finally Padfoot reached the end of the hall and carefully peeked his head around the wall, checking the positions of the various guards. He and Buffy had been careful about how they appeared to the guards. Pushing things some the first couple of weeks they had been here and then seemingly settling in and causing no problems whatsoever. Hopefully, this had worked to lull the guards into a false sense of security and they would be somewhat lax in what they were watching for down the hall. He needed enough time to get past them so that he had a good lead before catching their attention.

There were four sitting at a table pulled against the far wall, playing some sort of card game he'd never really understood the rules to. They were in the best position to see down the hall, but also hopefully distracted by the game. There were two leaning against the wall near the door he'd have to get through. He still thought he could slip through, but that would have to be done very carefully. Fortunately, they were sharing a smoke and seemed relatively relaxed. Then there were a couple of guards in sleeping bags asleep. They would be the easiest to sneak past, however they caused the most problems for him as their bags were pushed against the wall he was trying to stay next to. Which meant he would have to cross to the other side of the wall to get around them and then cross back without the other guards noticing him, which would not be easy and would be when he was most likely to get caught.

For a moment, the possibility of that distracted him, remembering the many times when he had first gotten here that he had tried to escape, sneaking carefully, only to be caught at the last minute, laughing demons suddenly all around him, ready for the next round of torture. However, in all those attempts, he had never once slipped into Padfoot's form to try and get away. He had thought about it, but something always stopped him as he was well aware that once they found out about that ability, it would be of no more use to him. He had saved it, waiting for the perfect moment, which had never seemed to come. He shook himself slightly, throwing off the memories. He really, really hoped he was right in choosing this moment as the "perfect" one.

Carefully, he began moving around the wall, staying as low to the ground and as close to the wall as possible. Right next to the first sleeping guard the light in the middle of the hallway was dimmest, so that would be where he needed to cross the hall to go around them. He moved slowly, forcing himself not to rush and to ignore the ball of nervousness currently lodged in his throat, and kept his ears tuned for the slightest sound of someone noticing him. The slow crawl seemed to take years as he made his way to the mat the first guard was sleeping on. Finally stopping a bit from the mat, he cautiously looked around at the guards. They were still involved in their game and discussions, so far so good. Still moving slowly, he crossed the hall, expecting every second for one of them to suddenly yell out. Making it to the wall, he plastered himself against it, carefully checking around again, trying to remember how to breathe normally. Fate seemed to be on his side for once, since none of the guards had gone on alert or seemed to have noticed him at all. "Halfway there," he thought and then forced himself to move forward, staying huddled to the wall. Looking ahead, he knew that he would have to get much closer to the second sleeping guard then he had the first. The lighting in the hallway didn't quite reach the middle in this place, since one of the lights was out or something, likely the reason they had chosen this place to lay their bags. But the light fell brighter again in the middle just a tiny distance past the 2nd guard's roll, so he would have to cross back through the middle and almost right past the guard's head.

Again he moved, a snail's pace, his belly against the ground and his eyes shifting around rapidly from the guard he was moving towards, to the other sleeping guard, to the ones standing at the end of the hall. It felt as though entire years, centuries even, had passed since he first started down this hallway. Halfway there, three quarters there, the passing distance a mantra running through his head as he moved, ears perked for the shouts that would signal the gig was up. "C'mon, Paddy, ole boy, almost there," he thought to himself, and then spared a second to wonder if thinking of himself in the third person meant he had finally completely cracked, though he figured he had already been pretty cracked to begin with. He was almost to the side, far closer to the second guard than he ever wanted to be, when the guard suddenly shifted, rolling to his side facing the hallway and, Sirius realized to his horror, his open eyes staring straight at him. Sirius froze, his breath catching in his throat, horror seizing through him at the thought that he had failed. Then the guard sighed, his eyes falling closed again and Sirius moved, chancing being heard but knowing he had to get out of sight before the guard's brain caught up with his vision. He had barely made it to the side and huddled up on the other side of the slight indention in the wall, when the guard's head snapped up and he looked around, peering into the darkness for what he thought he had seen. Luck, it seemed, was with him this time, for after a few seconds of looking around, the guard shook his head slightly and lay back down. Sirius stayed perfectly still, waiting, for what he was pretty sure were his last few moments of life, his eyes glued to the guard. Finally, he picked up the change in the guard's breathing that signaled he was moving back into sleep.

Sirius breathed out slowly, trying to move the heart that had lodged in his throat when the guard opened his eyes back down to its proper place. Slowly inching forward Sirius made his way down the hallway. The door he was headed for was about 10 human steps away, but for Sirius it was more like double that number. There were some disadvantages to being in dog form and smaller steps was definitely one of them right now. Suddenly there was a yell from the group of guards playing the card game. Sirius froze, "This is it," he thought, "they've seen me and I'm really a dead man." Turning quickly, preparing to do his best to get the guards out the door, he relaxed when he saw one of the guards pulling the pile of chips to him, smirking at the other guards. Sirius inwardly rolled his eyes, couldn't they win without giving him a heart attack in the process?

Sirius again started to move forward, "almost there, almost there," he kept telling himself. Finally after what seemed like 3 hours of moving about 20 steps, he made it past the final two guards. Involved in their smoke and quiet conversation, they didn't notice the black dog slinking past them at all. Now it was time for the fun part of this whole endeavor. Moving to the middle of the hallway beyond the door, Sirius suddenly started barking like mad. The reaction of the guards would have been pretty damn funny, were the situation not quite so desperate. The guards that were playing the card game were suddenly on their feet, their chairs knocked to the floor and the game tossed askew by their movements. That was one game that was now finished! The two sleeping guards were instantly awake and trying to untangle themselves from their sleeping bags. One of the guards closest to Sirius actually choked on the cigarette smoke he had just inhaled and continued to cough, even as the two began moving towards where Sirius stood. Seeing that they were now well and truly distracted, and thus on their way towards him, he figured it was time to run. He quickly turned and bolted down the hallway in the opposite direction of Buffy and Faith. As he moved away from the guards, he couldn't help but think that Prongs would've greatly enjoyed this particular prank.

Buffy jumped when she heard the barking, even though she had been waiting for it for what seemed like forever. The two slayers exchanged relieved glances.

"Check it out B, I guess you can teach old dogs new tricks," Faith whispered. Buffy tried and failed to hide her grin. It felt like her heart could finally beat somewhat normally again, knowing that Sirius was still ok. The girls quietly stepped out into the hallway and slowly made their way towards the two guards who had remained behind. They still stood at the curve of the hallway, but luckily for Buffy and Faith were distracted by all the commotion and paying no attention to the direction the slayers were moving from. Faith nodded to Buffy, then at the guy closest to Ford's office door. Buffy got the point; she would take that guard, while Faith would take the one that was nearest the hallway leading down to where Sirius…or Pedfoot or whatever he likes to call himself as a dog, had led the other guards. Buffy held up her fingers 3…2…1, and then both moved in sync, throwing themselves at the guards. It wasn't close to a fair fight and there were then two less guards to worry about.

"Nice job, B." Faith said, giving the blonde Slayer a grin. It was nice to be finally doing something that didn't involve playing nice with the bad guys.

"Not too bad yourself." Buffy replied, before almost jumping out of her skin when Sirius popped up out of nowhere in human form.

She sent a scowl his way for scaring her half to death. "Um…don't think I'm not totally happy to see that you're safe and all, but shouldn't you be working on, y'know, distracting?" Buffy asked with confusion in her voice.

"I lost them a while back," he replied with a shrug and a roguish grin, "and since I can't seem to find them either, I figured my job was done and I should rejoin you two."

"If you two are finished, you think that we can get to searching Ford's office now? Seriously doubt the guards are stupid enough to stay away from here for too long." Faith said with obvious annoyance in her voice. Faith was never the type to just stand around.

Sirius and Buffy grunted their agreements, and the trio moved to Ford's office door. Faith got to the door first, making quick work of the lock. There were lots of times when having super strength definitely came in handy.

The three entered in the room, only to stop in disbelief. Faith looked around, stepped back out into the hallway, looked around, and stepped back into the room, confusion evident on her face.

"Ok, did we suddenly step through a portal into another dimension?" Faith gasped.

Buffy shook her head, looking around in shock, while Sirius simply continued to stare at the room, his expression incredulous.

The room was like a king's suite compared to what was outside of the study. The walls were painted black, but not the emo kind you might expect to find in a teenage girl's room. It was fancier and almost silky looking, seeming to sparkle slightly when the light in the room hit it just right. The carpet was plush, their feet sinking into it slightly, and Buffy had the crazy desire to slip her boots off and walk on it barefoot, just to feel it.

Sirius met Buffy's eyes as he bounced up and down slightly on his toes in the carpet. "You realize his floor is probably more comfortable to sleep on than all of our sleeping bags put together."

Buffy took a breath to comment and then the smell hit her. Coffee, real honest to goodness coffee, and not the pig slop they had been surviving on for the past several weeks. Good stuff too, from the smell of it, though that could just be her withdrawal talking. She was pretty sure she would have to kill him just for keeping the coffee from her.

Turning to her left, she rolled her eyes at the opulent desk covering that side of the room. "He has a Victorian desk in here. Where exactly do you go in hell to find a Victorian era desk? Does he special order from Evil Furnishings R-Us?" Buffy asked, shaking her head as she moved towards the desk.

"What I want to know is why I haven't seen this room before." Faith said, a scowl dark on her face, not happy that Ford hadn't shown her this room yet.

Sirius and Buffy exchanged looks, amused at Faith's obvious irritation, and then he glanced behind him, checking the hallway for any returning guards, before stepping in and shutting the door. "Uh Faith, perhaps you want to check the bookshelf for any information he might have."

"Right," she growled, muttering under her breath about teaching spoiled little boys a lesson, as she moved to the shelf and began rifling through the books. Buffy was digging through the various papers on the desk, while Sirius continued to stand just inside the door, watching the two and keeping one ear cocked for the return of the guards.

"Dude, Ford is a total Giles-wanna-be. He likes all the old, musty, about-to-fall-to-pieces books. No wander you don't like him B." Faith said with a smirk. Buffy just sent Faith a mild glare before continuing her search.

"What's this?" Buffy asked after a few moments of silent searching. Faith and Sirius joined her at the desk, examining the paper she was holding. It was old, more like parchment, and contained a picture on it that looked like a map of a maze. Sirius thought the maze pictured vaguely resembled a hedge maze, much like the one built for the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Well, if the hedge maze was designed by Mad-Eye on a drinking binge after being hit by the Confundus Charm. If the point were to completely confuse anyone who might get stuck inside the thing, whoever had designed it had done a bang up job. There was writing on the map, the same word noted in various places all over the picture - trap. That was it, no further explanation of what the maze was for or anything, just the single word. Which Sirius found fairly ominous. "What is…" Sirius started to say, but was cut off by the sound of yelling coming from down the hall. The guards had returned.

"Damn, they're back. I was really hoping they'd stay gone longer." Faith said, her face grim. Sirius shook his head.

"Me too."

"We need to get out of here," Buffy spoke up, pocketing the map they had found. She wasn't sure why, but her instincts said the map was important and, after 8 years as the Slayer, she had learned to trust her instincts. Well, except when it came to guys, but that was a headache for another day.

"Come on, I think I know a good place where we can hide from them until we get a chance to escape," Faith said, giving Buffy a glance and moving towards the door.

Buffy nodded at her and said, "All right, I guess the gigs up anyway and I am SO past ready to blow this joint."

Darting out the door, the immediately took off running, bowling over the two guards who had been outside, neither of whom had time to react to their presence. They darted through the door Sirius had played distraction through earlier, following Faith's lead as she chose hallways, seemingly at random. Buffy took their six, making sure that Sirius stayed in between them. They could hear the shouts behind them and knew they had picked up quite a following. Buffy chanced a quick glance behind them as they ran, noting that the normal guards had now been joined by several demons and a very angry Ford, who ran with them.

"Damn, Ford's back," she shouted to the other two, "pick up the pace!"

It was enough motivation to get them moving even faster. Sirius couldn't help but think that all that sneaking around he had done had been totally wasted, since they hadn't really found anything all that helpful in the office. Then he once again focused on running, knowing the two slayers were already going slower than they could be to keep pace with him. He didn't want to slow things down, but this wasn't a pace he'd be able to maintain anywhere close to as long as they could. He really hoped a miracle happened soon.

Faith suddenly veered sharply left and then right, ducking down hallways, both Sirius and Buffy right on her heels. "This way," Faith suddenly said, pointing toward a small doorway at the back of the hall. She stopped at the doorway, gesturing sharply for Buffy and Sirius to enter and they ran in ahead of her.

"It's a dead end!" Buffy said, looking around frantically for a way out. She spun towards the door, moving to get back out of the room before the demons trapped them, only to be knocked to the ground by a right hook from Faith. Holding her bruised jaw, she looked up at Faith in disbelief as the guards and demons came up behind her.

Faith just smirked at her, moving to Ford's side as he entered the room.


End file.
